By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The Reds completed the overhaul of their baseball operation Wednesday by naming Terry Reynolds director of amateur scouting and Johnny Almaraz director of international scouting.

Reynolds, 50, has been with the Los Angeles Dodgers since 1978. He was director of scouting from 1991-98 and has been coordinator of minor-league scouting/special assignment scout since then.

Almaraz, 38, has been with the Reds for 14 years, most recently as a special assistant to the general manager.

New GM Dan O'Brien restructured the scouting department into three groups: amateur, international and professional. Assistant GM Dean Taylor will supervise the professional scouting department.

"At one time, I did all three for the Dodgers," Reynolds said. "But that's tough to do now. With international ball, someone is playing all the time. Pro scouting is an entity to itself. Teams are becoming more departmentalized. I think that is a good thing."

Reynolds will be responsible for scouting players for the June draft and will be based in Cincinnati.

He doesn't expect to add a lot of scouts - at least initially.

"We haven't gotten into that yet," he said. "But for this year, it's doubtful that we'll do much."

The Reds approached the Dodgers around Christmas to get permission to talk to Reynolds.

Reynolds knew both Taylor and O'Brien. All three have master's degrees in sports administration from Ohio University and have followed similar career paths with different organizations.

"Dan, Dean and I have known each other for a long time," Reynolds said. "We have similar philosophies about building a team."

Almaraz established academies for the Reds in Venezuela and the Dominican Republic. He was the team's assistant scouting director in 2001-02 and was a special assistant to former GM Jim Bowden the last two years.

"It will be good to get back to it," Almaraz said. "We're going to do everything we can to be more productive."

Talent evaluators

General manager: Dan O'Brien

Assistant GM: Dean Taylor

Special assistant: Bill Wood

Director amateur scouting: Terry Reynolds

Director of international scouting: Johnny Almaraz

Director of player development: Tim Naehring