Dodgers add new quartet to front office: Finley, Carr, Pickler, Cressend

By Jon Weisman

The Dodgers continued to work their way through this offseason’s front-office hires with the official addition of four names today:

• Vice president of amateur and international scouting David Finley
• Director of player personnel Galen Carr
• Special assistant for pro scouting and player development Jeff Pickler
• Pitching crosschecker Jack Cressend

The newest hires join almost-as-new director of player development Gabe Kapler and director of amateur scouting Billy Gasparino, general manager Farhan Zaidi and senior vice president of baseball operations Josh Byrnes, and of course president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman.

Finley and Carr come from Boston, where each spent more than a decade.

Finley had been director of player personnel for the Red Sox since November 2011 and was also special assistant to the general manager. He joined the Red Sox in 2002 as their West Coast crosschecker and was named the organization’s scout of the year in 2007.

Finley played two years of minor-league ball for Oakland (among his teammates: one-time Dodger Ron Coomer) after being drafted out of UC Riverside in 1987. He previously worked as an area scout for the Padres (1991-94) and Marlins (1995-2001).

Carr had been a Red Sox special assignment scout since 2011, working his way up the organization after joining as an intern in 2000. He served as advance scouting administrator (2001-02), advance scouting coordinator (2003-05), pro scout (2006) and then Major League scout (2007-11).

Pickler comes from the Padres, where he most recently served as a pro scout. He broke into the front office ranks as an advance scout and consultant to the Major League staff with the Arizona Diamondbacks from 2006-08, following an eight-year minor-league playing career in which his teammates included Adrian Gonzalez.

Taking on the newly created role of pitching crosschecker, Cressend comes from Friedman’s former shop in Tampa Bay, where the former MLB reliever was most recently an amateur scout and pitching consultant. He also shares with Friedman a history with the Tulane Green Wave baseball team. Cressend’s former big-league teammates include Casey Blake. And, he shares a birthday with my wife — so no forgetting that.