In a bit of news we missed from the Winter Meetings, the Mets hired Chad MacDonald as their new scouting director.

The Mets' front-office overhaul also included the addition of Dick Scott to the staff as minor league field coordinator. Scott filled the same post in Houston last year and the previous eight seasons working in Toronto for J.P. Ricciardi, now a special assistant to Mets' general manager Sandy Alderson.

MacDonald is actually one member of the Mets front office without ties to Alderson's old Athletics gang, a group that includes Paul DePodesta, who will be MacDonald's boss as vice president of scouting and player development. DePodesta will work out of his San Diego home while MacDonald works out of the Dallas Metroplex area. MacDonald's last post was as the Diamondbacks' international scouting director, and he was assistant scouting director for Arizona under Mike Rizzo and then Tom Allison from 2006-2008. He previously was an area scout for the Angels (2003-2005) and Indians (2000-2002).

MacDonald's task with the Mets will be to bring the organization's resources to bear in the draft. The Mets rarely went over-slot to sign players in recent years, and Alderson helped come up with the slotting procedures when he worked in the commissioner's office a decade ago.

But soon after he was hired, Alderson said, "I think in recent years it's become clear that some clubs are going to go over slot . . . I think we have gotten to the point where not only big-market clubs are going over-slot, but small-market clubs are going over-slot. I don't think we can get left behind in that regard. I think we've got to be open-minded about it, and we intend to be. You fall further and further behind if you're not being as aggressive as you possibly can."