Rene Gayo

Rene Andres Gayo

• Bats Right, Throws Right

• School St. Mary's University
• High School Gordon Technical High School

• Born September 21, 1962 in Miami, FL USA

BR minors page

Biographical Information

Rene Gayo has directed Latin American scouting operations for two different teams.

Gayo was the son of Cuban immigrants, born in Miami and raised in Chicago. He played some hockey as a youth in addition to baseball. He earned a degree in economics from St. Mary's University. A catcher, he played for the 1987 GCL Reds, going 5 for 30 with 2 walks and no extra-base hits in 12 games. He had two knee surgeries and did not return to the diamond as a player. He worked briefly as a representative for a bottling company.

In 1989, Cam Bonifay hired Gayo as a part-time scout for the Pittsburgh Pirates in Texas and Louisiana. He later scouted for the Texas Rangers and Cleveland Indians, signing Brian Tallet. After the Indians fell in 1998 to the New York Yankees and Orlando Hernandez, John Hart decided to reorganize the team's Latin American operations, eventually settling on Gayo, despite his never having been to the Caribbean before.

Gayo became scouting director for the Indians in Latin America in 1999. He helped sign Fausto Carmona, Jhonny Peralta, Danys Baez, Willy Taveras and Rafael Perez. In 2004, the Pirates hired Gayo to lead their Latin American scouting system, filling a position inexplicably left vacant for five years under Bonifay and Dave Littlefield. A 2015 article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette portrayed Gayo as being very critical of the buscone system. He was let go in 2017 following a scandal involving kickbacks from a Mexican League team.

Sources

• 2008 Pirates Media Guide
• Bio of Gayo by Dejan Kovacevic in the 12/2/08 edition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
• 1988 Baseball America Statistics Report
• Baseball Republic by J. Brady McCullough in the 9/13/15 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette