The Chicago Cubs hired Kenta Nomoto as scouting director, installing a Japan-born evaluator atop their amateur scouting operation as the organization's farm system ranking fell to No. 22 league-wide. Hoyer announced the move internally last week. Nomoto, most recently with the Mariners' international department, becomes the first Japanese-born executive to hold the scouting director title for a major-league club.
The hire arrives with timing that is not coincidental. Chicago's farm system ranked No. 7 as recently as 2022. Two years of graduated talent—Nico Hoerner, Christopher Morel, Matt Mervis up the ladder—combined with underwhelming draft classes have thinned the depth chart. Baseball America now slots the Cubs behind Milwaukee, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh in the division. The Cubs forfeited their second-round pick in 2024 for signing Dansby Swanson and will forfeit their 2025 second-rounder for Shota Imanaga. That leaves Nomoto working with a first-rounder, then third-round capital in consecutive drafts, a needle-threading exercise.
Nomoto's background suggests Hoyer is betting on process over pedigree. He spent six years with Seattle, where he helped identify international arms who are now climbing Double-A. He speaks fluent English and Japanese, useful when the Cubs hold a $6.3 million international pool for the 2025-26 cycle, one of the larger allotments. Chicago has historically underperformed that pool size, signing mid-tier talent in Latin America while Seattle, Tampa, and San Diego extracted surplus value from the same dollar base. Nomoto also worked briefly with the Fighters in Nippon Professional Baseball before jumping stateside, which means he has line of sight into Japan's university and industrial leagues, a talent channel the Cubs have not consistently accessed despite signing Imanaga and Seiya Suzuki.
The Cubs' front office now counts four former Mariners executives: Nomoto, assistant GM Jeff Greenberg, director of baseball operations Dan Murrey, and pro scouting coordinator Matt Carlisle. Hoyer is quietly assembling a Seattle-adjacent brain trust while Jerry Dipoto churns through contention windows. The Cubs, by contrast, have not won a playoff series since 2017. That is the real pressure: Nomoto is being asked to restock a system while the club competes in the NL Central with a mid-tier payroll and no margin for error in free agency.
Nomoto's first test is the 2025 draft in mid-July. The Cubs hold the No. 11 pick, a slot that typically yields advanced college arms or high-floor college bats. The last three No. 11 picks: Kumar Rocker, Chase DeLauter, Jacob Gonzalez. Hit rate around 50% to the majors. Nomoto will also oversee the June 2026 draft, when the Cubs regain full capital. By then, the farm system will either stabilize near No. 15 or continue sliding. The international window opens in January 2026, and Nomoto will have fourteen months to redirect those dollars toward upside rather than safety.
The scouting director role has become a two-year audition in most organizations. Nomoto's predecessor lasted three seasons. If the Cubs' system ranking does not reverse by mid-2027, when Baseball America publishes its next full re-rank after the draft and international signings mature, Hoyer will be explaining the hire to Tom Ricketts. The Cubs' season-ticket base has flattened at 27,000, and Wrigley attendance dipped 3.1% year-over-year in 2024. A shallow farm system eventually becomes a shallow roster, and the Cubs cannot afford to trade prospects they do not have.
Nomoto starts Monday. His first flight is to the Dominican Republic, where the Cubs maintain a year-round academy and hold $2.1 million in pool space reserved for July signings.
The takeaway
Cubs install Japan-born scouting director with Seattle pedigree as farm system slides to No. 22 and draft capital stays thin through 2026.
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