The Yankees announced five additions to their Major League/pro scouting staff today: Kendall Carter, Brandon Duckworth, Joe Espada, Dan Giese, and Dennis Twombley. Background info on all five is right here. Carter and Twombley are moving over from the amateur scouting staff and Espada was hired away from the Marlins. You probably remember Giese from his brief 2008 stint in pinstripes.

Duckworth, who bounced around the league as a journeyman right-hander for more than a decade, is the most interesting of the new hires simply because he spent the last two years as Masahiro Tanaka’s teammate with the Rakuten Golden Eagles. Did they hire him to help ease Tanaka’s transition, or did they get to know Duckworth while scouting Tanaka and felt he could help them as a scout? Either way, the Yankees haven’t dug up many hidden gems since Billy Eppler was promoted from pro scouting director to assistant GM two years ago. Hopefully that changes with the new additions.