Nationals Farm Authority

While I was away over the weekend, the Nationals accepted the resignation of Director of Player Development, Andy Dunn.

[Bob] Boone and the remainder of the baseball operations staff will assume all Dunn’s duties. Further restructuring within the Nationals’ player development department will be announced at a later date.

Dunn was initially the Director of Ballpark Operations in the Nationals first year at RFK before replacing Adam Wogan as Director of Player Development in October of 2005. While the timing of this move is a bit unusual, it is not exactly unexpected. When the Nationals hired Mike Rizzo as the Assistant General Manager & Vice President, Baseball Operations, the organizational structure of player development changed significantly. The understanding was that Rizzo would spearhead much of the rebuilding effort within the Nationals player development, thereby removing much of Dunn’s day-to-day responsibilities. It will certainly bear watching how the Nationals restructuring is done.

UPDATE: Looking around online, I found this additional bit of information regarding the Nationals restructuring.

The other three — Michele Copes, coordinator of scouting and player development; Tyler Holmes, assistant to the farm director; and Matt Blaney, assistant, player development-Florida operations — were fired.

Ryan Thomas, an Assistant Player Development, is the only one that remains from Dunn’s Player Development staff. It appears the Nationals have completely eliminated a Player Development staff that was reorganized in December of 2006.