Phillies front-office executive Bart Braun dies at 64
Mr. Braun joined the Phillies in 2012 as a special assistant to the general manager. He spent 44 years in baseball including seven seasons as a minor-league player before becoming a scout.
Bart Braun spent so many nights on the road as a baseball scout that he joked that he accrued enough loyalty points to stay at a hotel for 12 years if his wife ever kicked him out.
Mr. Braun, who died Friday, was a baseball lifer, devoted to his craft and the never-ending chase around the globe in search of baseball talent.
He spent 44 years in baseball, the last eight of which were with the Phillies as a spbecial assistant to the general manager. His colleagues remembered him Saturday as a dedicated scout and a generous friend who had an eye for talent and a voracious sense of humor.
He died suddenly at home in Vallejo, Calif., and is survived by his wife, Patty, and son, Bart Jr.
Mr. Braun joined the Phillies in 2012, and general manager Matt Klentak said it’s easier to name the players whom Braun didn’t help the Phillies land than the seemingly never-ending list that he guided to Philadelphia.
“He was a key figure to go see all the top players and even the non-top players. He would go see anybody at any time,” Klentak said. “I think that -- maybe more than anything -- is what made Bart unique. He was so talented.”
Mr. Braun was drafted by Oakland in the third round in 1976 and spent seven seasons as a minor-league right-handed pitcher for the A’s, Indians, Blue Jays, and Angels. He retired after the 1982 season and joined the Tigers as a scout for one year before moving to Pittsburgh.
The first player Mr. Braun signed with the Pirates was Moises Alou, a star player during the 1990s after Pittsburgh drafted him second overall in 1986. But a better example of Mr. Braun’s ability to unearth talent came seven years later after he joined the Braves.
“We had a first-year scout in Northern California who rounded up the best players for a workout and I sent Bart from the draft room, which is sort of unique. He flew to Northern California for the workout,” said Chuck Lamar, who was then Atlanta’s scouting director and also worked with Mr. Braun in Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay, and Philadelphia.
“It rained all day and they had the workout literally on a track. He came back and said, ‘I would take this player. You don’t have to take him high. Nobody’s on him.’ His name was Jermaine Dye and we got him in the 17th round of the 1993 draft.”
In 2014, Phillies international scouting director Sal Agostinelli was in South Korea but needed to have someone watch a Cuban catcher work out in the Domincan Republic.
“I would call him on the phone and say, ‘Bart, I need you there.’ He would be in there tomorrow morning,” Agostinelli said. “He wouldn’t care about anything else and I knew I was going to get the right evaluation.”
The Cuban catcher, Mr. Braun told Agostinelli, wasn’t worth signing. But Mr. Braun needed Agostinelli to send him $35,000 so he could sign the pitcher who was throwing against the Cuban player the Phillies were initially after.
“I said, ‘Bart, 35 grand? You got it. You know more about this stuff than I do,’” Agostinelli said. “He ended up signing Sixto Sanchez, who winds up being our No. 1 prospect.
“Bart was always in the right place at the right time. We know he was a great evaluator, but he was also the hardest worker I ever saw in my life.”
Mr. Braun traveled wherever the Phillies needed him. He would watch minor-league games with pro scouting director Mike Ondo and challenge Ondo to pick between the two second basemen they watched that night. No question was dumb, Ondo said, and Mr. Braun always shared his years of knowledge.
“Bart was not afraid to make a mistake. In scouting, if you’re afraid to make a mistake then you’re in trouble,” said Hall of Famer Pat Gillick, who was the general manager of the 2008 world champions. “He always put his evaluation forward. He always put his thoughts forward.
“You knew what was on his mind. There wasn’t anything hidden when Bart was talking about a player. If you were going to send one guy out to get a look at a player -- be it international, professional, or amateur -- he would be one of the guys we would pick to go.”
Assistant general manager Scott Proefrock, who worked with Mr. Braun in Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay before reuniting in Philadelphia, said Mr. Braun was the best evaluator he ever knew and “lived and loved baseball.”
He laughed about the way Mr. Braun would fall asleep in the middle of a conversation during their drive to see minor-leaguers in Reading but somehow happened to perk up just as they reached Mr. Braun’s favorite diner.
Mr. Braun’s go-to order was potato salad, as he said his wife, Patty, made the world’s best. And that was his way to get a taste of home during all of those nights on the road.
“His ability to care about people genuinely is something that really, really moved me,” special assistant to the general manager Johnny Alamaraz said.