Jason McLeod is the Director of Amateur Scouting for the Boston Red Sox. He has been in this position since 2004, after being encouraged to come east from the San Diego Padres by Sox GM Theo Epstein, who worked with McLeod in San Diego.

McLeod was born in Hawaii but moved to California before he turned two. He attended Palomar Junior College and was drafted by the Houston Astros, pitching for two years in the minor leagues and then retiring to off-the-field duties. When former director of scouting Kevin Towers became general manager of the Padres, McLeod was given an internship, where he worked in both scouting and minor-league coaching. After the 2003 season, he moved across the country to become the Director of Amateur Scouting with the Red Sox.

McLeod has been widely credited (perhaps not enough) for his role, along with Epstein and Ben Cherington, in restocking the Red Sox farm system, as he was in charge of both the 2005 and 2006 drafts, which yielded names such as Clay Buchholz, Michael Bowden, Craig Hansen, and Jacoby Ellsbury.

As far as anyone knows, McLeod is the only major league scouting director of Polynesian ancestry.

Keith, Peter, Ian, and Kevin: “Oh, that smells wonderful.”