DiPuglia joins Royals, Carpenter to remain in Nats' booth two more seasons

Johnny DiPuglia, who led the Nationals’ international scouting department for a decade-plus before his departure late in the 2023 season, has joined the Royals’ front office.

Kansas City announced this week it has hired DiPuglia as special assistant of international scouting, adding one of baseball’s most respected Latin American evaluators to its staff.

DiPuglia’s new position is not as high-ranking as his previous one with the Nats was. He’ll report to Royals senior vice president of major league and international operations Rene Francisco. But it’s nonetheless a prominent landing spot for the 60-year-old, who surprisingly found himself looking for work this offseason.

Initially hired by the Nationals in 2009, DiPuglia was one of the organization’s longest-tenured employees and one of general manager Mike Rizzo’s most-trusted confidants. Tasked with overseeing a Latin American program that was in disarray following a scandal involving the falsifying of supposed top prospect Esmailyn Gonzalez’s name, age and playing ability, he helped turn the operation around during his 15 years in charge.

DiPuglia’s most notable achievement with the Nats was the discovery and signing of teenage outfielder Juan Soto, but he signed a number of other young Latin American prospects who reached the big leagues, including Victor Robles, Luis García, Joan Adon, Jose A. Ferrer, Wander Suero, Reynaldo López, Wilmer Difo, Jefry Rodriguez and Israel Pineda. Among the homegrown Latin American prospects still in the Nationals’ farm system are Jeremy De La Rosa, Cristhian Vaquero and Andry Lara.

DiPuglia abruptly resigned in early September, the first of several long-time front office employees who either resigned, were re-assigned or let go in a significant shakeup of Rizzo’s baseball operations department.

Fausto Severino, who had been DiPuglia’s assistant, has since been promoted to run the Nats’ international scouting department.

* Bob Carpenter will be returning to the broadcast booth this season, though the longtime play-by-play announcer will have a reduced schedule.

Carpenter, who has been with the Nationals since 2006, announced Friday he will remain in his current role for the next two seasons, which will be his 19th and 20th at MASN. He won’t be calling as many games, though, announcing a reduced schedule that will include “most of the road games and around half at home.”

“I’m grateful to the Nats and MASN for letting me wind down my career on these terms,” Carpenter wrote on Twitter. “And I want you to know that sharing these last 18 years with you has been the highlight of my long career.”

Carpenter, 70, was already a well-established broadcaster before coming to D.C., with two long stints calling play-by-play for the Cardinals, as well as shorter stints with the Mets, Rangers and Twins. He made his major league debut in 1984 and along the way also spent 18 years calling baseball and other sporting events for ESPN, plus men’s and women’s basketball for the University of Oklahoma.