by Cary Osborne
It was almost exactly 30 years to the day after Ismael Cruz signed Colombian catcher Yamid Haad.
Cruz, sitting on a couch in the Dodgers’ suite at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas on Monday, reflected on his career in the game. It’s far from over — especially considering that his father, Pablo, recently retired from the scouting life with the Toronto Blue Jays at nearly 80 years old.
But there was reason for him to look back, considering Baseball America had selected him as the recipient of its 2024 Tony Gwynn Award — the publication’s lifetime achievement award.
Cruz, who has worked for the Dodgers since 2015 and is the organization’s vice president of international scouting — a heavy responsibility considering the bar the team has set outside of the United States — broke into scouting in the mid-1990s.
His father worked for the Pittsburgh Pirates at the time and helped him get started as a part-time scout after his short professional baseball playing career ended with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1990 with the Low-A Batavia Clippers.
“Jamil Haad. That was my first big leaguer,” Cruz recalled. “H-A-A-D. A catcher from Colombia — $5,000.”
“It’s a lot different now,” he continued. “Back then, it was just three cities (I scouted). Right now, it’s the whole world. Being a Dodger gets you exposure to all the continents. And you have to have presence everywhere. And being a world champion here for the second time, obviously, it’s the ultimate goal.”
Cruz was surprised when he was informed by Dodger Executive Vice President and General Manager Brandon Gomes that he had won the award. It wasn’t ever a thought. His father was awarded baseball’s International Scout of the Year at the 2016 Baseball Winter Meetings. Cruz said his father often jokingly let him know about the award. Now he has something as a bit of an answer.
“If the award has the name Tony Gwynn, I can imagine that is very important,” Cruz said. “I remember him being a people’s person, a player who everybody likes. So the award reflects what he was like.”
It’s also what Cruz prides himself on and a trait that he was handed down by his father, a deeply religious man whose way with people has led to decades of success in the game.
Cruz briefly managed (2001) in the Dominican Republic for the Padres organization. He began his front office career in 2002 as the Expos’ director of international scouting and development, where he served until 2005. He was the Blue Jays’ special assistant of Latin American operations for four years from 2012–2015, following a successful stint as the Mets’ international scouting director from 2006–11. During his time with the Mets and Blue Jays, Cruz was instrumental in helping to sign Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Franklin Barreto, Richard Ureña, Miguel Castro, Jose Fernández, Jeurys Familia, Wilmer Flores and Juan Lagares.
With the Dodgers, he has overseen an international scouting department that has found success in producing Major Leaguers and adding elite international talent to the Dodger player development system despite building from one of the lowest annual international signing bonus pools in Major League Baseball.
“He is the ultimate teammate,” Gomes said. “It’s impressive to see how long he’s been around, and to continue to be able to evolve and grow and learn and push these initiatives forward — to continue to help us produce pretty good Minor League talent that either we bring up to the big leagues, or sometimes they get used in trades as we’re being active at the deadline. So his contributions culturally, on top of creating a group that is able to go out and consistently acquire really good talent who are also good people, is really impressive.”
Cruz said it took some getting used to by him and his scouts when some of the young players his department scouted and signed were traded for Major Leaguers because they put so much work into the relationship building and development of that player.
But 2024 is the example of how the work put in pays off in a different way. Cruz and his team’s fingerprints are on this World Series championship.
Two international players, scouted by Cruz’s department, were on the World Series roster — Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Andy Pages.
But the Dodgers’ acquisitions of starting pitcher Jack Flaherty, who started five postseason games, National League Championship Series MVP Tommy Edman and reliever Michael Kopech, who appeared in 10 postseason games, were a product of good scouting, good signings and good development. All three of the Dodger players traded in the three-team deal were international signings.
“All my guys felt that this championship; they felt very connected to this one,” Cruz said.
The rewarding year for Cruz got better with the Tony Gwynn Award. Past winners include Cal Ripken Jr., former big league manager Felipe Alou and Dodger scouting legend Mike Brito in 2021.
Great company, he said. But it’s the company he keeps in his work that he wants to highlight for the award.
“This award is not just me, Cruz said. “It’s the whole list of people that have worked with me to get this. … Respect to those guys.”
Second-generation scouting great and Dodger exec Ismael Cruz is Tony Gwynn Award winner was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.