Wayne Britton

From SoSH

Wayne Britton was Scouting Director for the Boston Red Red from 1993-2000. In 2001, he was named Vice-President of Scouting. He is no longer with the team.

Overall Career

In 1993, Wayne Britton took charge of Boston's previously neglected scouting operation. In the following year, General Manager Dan Duquette was hired to overhaul the existing development program and create a system that would produce enough prospects to perenially compete for the World Championship. In 2001, he was nominated for the east Coast Scout of the Year. The award went to Rip Tutor of the Atlanta Braves.

Britton had come under fire for a number of disappointing high-round selections who never yielded any return for the organization. In a three-year period from 1995-1997, Britton chose three high school pitchers with first-round picks: Andy Yount, Josh Garrett and John Curtice.

Yount was released, Curtice was dealt in the deal which brough the Red Sox Dante Bichette and Garrett struggled at Class A ball this summer, his fourth in pro ball.

Additionally, outfielder Mark Fischer, a sandwich pick taken in 1997 as compensation for the loss of free agent Roger Clemens, never panned out.

Among Red Sox regulars, only shortstop Nomar Garciaparra and Trot Nixon have were drafted under Britton. It should be noted that the Sox have dealt off some top picks (Adam Everett, Carl Pavano) to acquire established players such as Carl Everett and Pedro Martinez.

A handful of other Britton picks including outfielder Michael Coleman and Donnie Sadler stalled at Triple A.

Numerous times Britton was the person cited for ruining the Mark Teixeira negotiations when Teixiera came out of high school. The future All-Star passed up $1.5 million in signing bonuses from Red Sox to play at Georgia Tech because of bullying behavior by Britton.

Once the John Henry goup assumed ownership of the team, Britton was the first person they fired after Duquette. David Chadd took his place, and Britton was paid for the last two years of his contract.

In 2002, Butch Stearns was quoted as saying, "Yesterday in the Globe, Gordon Eades made the following statement: "the Sox' failure to sign some notable draftees - Cardinals third baseman Albert Pujols and up-and-comer Mark Texeira of the Rangers, as well as Harvard righthander Ben Crockett last summer - cost former scouting director Wayne Britton his job." It's a little confusing, but Pujols was never drafted by the Red Sox. They negotiated with him as he was a foreign player to try to get his price down, but couldn't come to an agreement. For Eades to say he was drafted by the Red Sox is inaccurate. They could have had him had they paid a little more, but he was never property of theirs."

Quotes

“I remember (then-scouting director) Wayne Britton telling me a couple of years later, `Darn, we could have had Albert Pujols'"- Dan Duquette