UPDATE: I just heard from the Pirates that Baad will be an intern in Baseball Operations, and NOT a scout. She also won’t be a full time employee. This is much different than what NBC 29 reported, and also kind of a weird situation, since Baad’s comments in the article fit the description of what a scout does. Of course, they also fit the description of a baseball operations intern. So perhaps the author of the original report just assumed she was a scout, and that information didn’t come from Baad.
Either way, Baad will be working for the Pirates, starting later this month, but won’t be the second full time female scout in MLB (or yet, at least). The Pirates have had females working as interns in baseball Ops in the past, including one last year, so this isn’t a totally unique situation. – Tim Williams
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The Pittsburgh Pirates plan to hire Kinza Baad as a scout for the minor league system. Her job will be to scout the Pittsburgh Pirates affiliates, as well as players from other teams. She will also work on the player development side. Baad will begin the job after she graduates from the University of Virginia, where she is a four-year member of the softball team. She has experience with the Los Angeles Dodgers as an associate scout, starting that role during her sophomore year in college.
According to this article, she is one of just two female scouts currently working for an MLB team. The other is Amanda Hopkins for the Seattle Mariners. She is the daughter of Ron Hopkins, who is a Special Assistant to GM for the Pirates. It also appears that the Pirates have never had a full-time female scout before. Some research indicates that only 5-6 female scouts have worked as full-time scouts in baseball over the years.