Tuesday, December 8, 2015

SEATTLE, Wash. – Of all of the moves that the Seattle Mariners have made during the off-season, it is an off-field move that may have the biggest impact on baseball for years to come.

The club has hired former Central Washington softball player Amanda Hopkins as an amateur area scout. According to Baseball America, she is believed to be the first full-time female scout hired by a Major League team since the 1950s.

Mariners’ Director of Scouting Tom McNamara told MLB.com that Hopkins was hired several weeks ago, but did not want to draw attention to the fact to the hiring. He said that Hopkins was hired because she is an excellent scout, not because she is female.

“We didn’t make a big deal out of it, and the reason we didn’t was because she fits right in,” McNamara told MLB.com. “I look at her as a scout. Everybody here is excited. We’re excited because we feel we’ve hired a good scout.”

Hopkins interned with the Mariners’ scouting department the past three summers between terms at Central Washington. This fall, Hopkins was sent by the Mariners to the Major League scouting developmental program, an intensive two-week training session in Phoenix, and hired her after she drew top ratings.

Hopkins will take the place of Chris Pelekoudas as the area scout covering Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico. Pelekoudas was promoted by the club to West Coast supervisor.

The world of baseball and scouting is nothing new for Hopkins. Her father was the scouting director for the Texas Rangers and Oakland Athletics before being hired by the Pittsburgh Pirates.

“Whenever she had free time, she was always doing something baseball-related,” McNamara told MLB.com. “She had that passion, This is something sdhe really wants to do. It’s in her blood.”

Hopkins was a four-year member of the Central Washington program and was the team captain as a junior. She graduated from CWU in June with a degree in psychology.

Information from MLB.com and Baseball America were used in this report.