Longtime Dodgers Scout, Former Pitcher, Dies

Los Angeles Dodgers hat and glove in the dugout against the Atlanta Braves in the third inning at Turner Field on Aug. 12, 2014. | Brett Davis-Imagn Images

Bill Pleis' career as a major league pitcher was brief and, outside Minneapolis, largely relegated to the dustbin of history.

A left-handed pitcher, Pleis spent his entire big league career with the Twins from 1961-66. He made all but 10 of his 191 appearances out of the Twins' bullpen. Only one of those, a mop-up job in Game 4 of the 1965 World Series against the Dodgers, came in the postseason.

Fortunately for Pleis — and the Dodgers — his second act in baseball was longer than his first. As a scout, Pleis helped shape decades of Los Angeles Dodgers rosters over four decades beginning in 1976.

More news: Dodgers Already on Wrong Side of History Ahead of World Series

Pleis passed away on Friday in Missouri. He was 88.

A left-hander from St. Louis, Pleis debuted with the Minnesota Twins in 1961, the first season after the team relocated from Washington, D.C. He earned the franchise’s first win in its new home state in the second game of a doubleheader on April 16, 1961 in Baltimore.

But Pleis' true legacy began after his final pitch. When the Houston Astros hired him in 1969, Pleis embarked on a scouting career that would span nearly forty years and a continent’s worth of sandlots and backfields.

Pleis joined the Dodgers in 1976, first covering the Midwest before moving to Florida, where his eye for untapped potential earned the trust of the organization. His evaluations guided drafts that reflected both the old-school art of instinct and the emerging science of player projection.

Pleis won multiple Scout of the Year awards during his time with the Dodgers. He ascended the scouting ranks under eight general managers — Al Campanis, Fred Claire, Tommy Lasorda, Kevin Malone, Dave Wallace, Dan Evans, Paul DePodesta and Ned Colletti — to become an area scouting supervisor.

More news: Dodgers Co-Owner Magic Johnson Breaks Silence About Shohei Ohtani's Epic Game

"Bill Pleis was such a good man," Evans told Dodgers on SI. "Terrific scout, loyal Dodger guy, and a legend in the scouting world."

Among the players he championed for the Dodgers were first-round picks Kiki Jones and Jamie McAndrew in 1989; future major leaguer Chad Zerbe in 1991; and Yhency Brazoban, a throw-in to the December 2003 trade with the Yankees for pitcher Kevin Brown, who was closing for the Dodgers two years later.

Pleis did not, fortunately, convince the Dodgers to sign a 39-year-old Jose Canseco when the slugger participated at an open tryout in Vero Beach in March 2004.

Pleis retired in 2006, leaving behind not only a body of work but a family steeped in baseball. His son, Scott Pleis, served as the Detroit Tigers’ director of amateur scouting until 2022.

Bill Pleis’s career traced baseball’s postwar heartland to its modern front offices, a reminder that the sport’s future often depends on those who labor unseen. He is survived by his three children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. His wife of 65 years, Sue, predeceased him.

For more Dodgers news, head over to Dodgers on SI.