Amid some recent high-profile misses on the international free-agent market, the New York Yankees have reportedly fired their international scouting director. <\/p>\n
The Athletic’s Brendan Kuty<\/a> confirmed that Donny Rowland has been fired by the Yankees. <\/p>\n MLB insider Francys Romero<\/a> was the first to report the the Yankees weren’t bringing back Rowland. <\/p>\n Kuty noted multiple sources with the Yankees cited their recent “poor track record of turning big-money signings into impact major leaguers as a likely major contributing factor” in Rowland losing his job.<\/p>\n Highlighting the list of misses, at least thus far, is Jasson Dom\u00ednguez. The Yankees signed him a\u00a0then-franchise record $5.1 million signing bonus\u00a0<\/a>as a 16-year-old in July 2019.<\/p>\n Dom\u00ednguez’s signing was widely praised at the time, with one general manager telling ESPN’s\u00a0Jeff Passan<\/a>\u00a0he was “like Mike Trout” except “Trout wasn’t close to this good when he was 16.”<\/p>\n Now, while still only 22 years old, Dom\u00ednguez has hit .248\/.327\/.397 with 16 homers in 149 career MLB games. He was also\u00a0one of the worst<\/a>\u00a0defensive outfielders in the league during the 2025 season.<\/p>\n Other recent international signings that have failed to pan out include Alexander Vargas ($2.5 million<\/a>\u00a0signing bonus in 2019;\u00a0released<\/a>\u00a0in August); Brando Mayea ($4.35 million<\/a>\u00a0signing bonus in 2023; repeated rookie ball in 2025); Hans Montero ($1.7 million<\/a>\u00a0signing bonus in 2021; repeated A ball in 2025).<\/p>\n Going back even further, Kuty pointed out the Yankees’ 2014 international signing class included seven players who received bonuses of at least $1 million and two of them reached the big leagues. Hoy Park had the longest MLB tenure from that group with 68 games from 2021 to ’22 between the Yankees and Pittsburgh Pirates. D\u00e9rmis Garcia\u00a0appeared in 39 games with the Athletics in 2022.<\/p>\n