Bart Braun, one of the most popular and respected men in the baseball scouting community, died suddenly at his home in Northern California on Friday. He was 64 years old.
Braun, a former minor league pitcher, began his scouting career in 1983 and worked for five teams, including the Phillies.
He joined the Phillies in October 2012 as a special assistant to the general manager and was still in that role at the time of his death.
Like any scout, Braun was about finding good players. He lent his eyes and ideas to the Phillies’ amateur scouting staff as he prepared for the draft each year and toured the majors and minors for the players the team might be interested in acquiring through exchanges, free-agent firms. or claims of exemption.
Braun was known for his sense of humor and tireless work ethic that fueled many miles on baseball’s exploration path. Their “feel” for the players, what made them work, and how they could perform as challenges and competition became more difficult, was legendary. He was adept at evaluating pitchers and position players and general managers from Detroit to Pittsburgh to Atlanta to Tampa Bay to Philadelphia relied on him for information and guidance.
It saddens me to know that @Phillies explorer Bart Braun passed away unexpectedly last night. He was a good friend and someone he could talk to about baseball forever. I’ll miss him.
– Charlie Manuel (@ CMBaseball41) July 18, 2020
Braun’s impact on this current Phillies team can be seen on JT Realmuto.
In late 2014, Ruben Amaro Jr., then general manager of the Phillies, and Mike Ondo, director of professional exploration for the team, sent Braun to the Dominican Republic to look at a Cuban receiver named Lednier Ricardo.
A training had been organized at the Phillies academy in Boca Chica. Luis Garcia, one of the Phillies’ scouts in the Dominican Republic, was responsible for providing a pair of pitchers so Ricardo could practice hitting.
Braun watched Ricardo’s training and was not really impressed.
But he couldn’t take his eyes off one of the pitchers Garcia had brought in to launch batting practice. The pitcher was 16 years old in the shortstop conversion process. Braun loved the boy’s fast, loose arm, its sound delivery, and its easy speed. He turned his attention away from the receiver and asked the boy who was throwing hitting practice how long it would take to get his name on a contract. The boy said $ 35,000. Braun raised the flagpole to director of international exploration Sal Agostinelli and Carlos Salas, another explorer of the Phillies in the Dominican Republic. Done deal.
Within a few years, Sixto Sánchez, the batting practice pitcher that day in the Dominican Republic, was the Phillies’ top prospect. It was used as a key chip to acquire Realmuto at a Miami Marlins exchange in February 2019.
“I remember calling Ruben and Mike and saying, ‘We are not going to sign the catcher, but we could have found a pitcher,'” Braun recalled a few years after that training in the Dominican Republic. “It was kind of an accident, a lucky deal. We were in the right place at the right time. Sometimes when you keep working, you run into things.”
That’s a classic exploration story, and we tell it at a time when the exploration industry, populated by some of the best people in the game, is being hit by cutbacks and layoffs, all in the name of that coveted place called efficiency. There could be a drastic reduction in the number of minor league teams next year, and that will mean fewer players, and therefore fewer scouts to find them, and fewer instructors to develop them. On the exploration side, many teams are using more video and data-based player evaluation methods. These clubs are saving money, but they are losing something of their soul, the priceless human qualities of wisdom, experience, passion, instinct, work ethic, dedication and love of the game that explorers bring. Scouts like Bart Braun.
Braun’s death has hit the scouting community hard.
“He was a safe character,” said an old friend and rival explorer. “He had a heart of gold. The last time I saw him was on a plane. He gave up his first class seat so I could sit there with my wife.”
“We competed in the Dominican Republic incessantly. He never slept.”
Another heartbroken scout friend said the following about Braun and his tireless commitment to the art of digging up players:
“He was a true ‘earth explorer’ and that is the last compliment you can pay an explorer.”
Phillies general manager Matt Klentak praised Braun’s impact on the organization as a person and as a professional.
“Bart was a legend in the scouting world, and his evaluations played a role in virtually every player acquisition the Phillies made in recent years,” said Klentak. “But what we will miss most is Bart’s energy, his laughter, his loyal friendship, his passion for life and his love for the game of baseball. On behalf of all of Bart’s friends and colleagues in the Phillies, I extend our deepest condolences to Patty and Bart Jr. “
Braun is the second loss to hit Phillies scouting staff in the past year. In June, the club dedicated its draft to Will Brunson, a scouting staff member who died at age 49 in the fall of 2019. Brunson, who pitched in the majors, covered South Texas for the Phillies.
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