Blue Jays hire Didier, bring back Queen

The Toronto Blue Jays named Mel Didier and Mel Queen as senior advisers of player development on Monday.

Didier, 82, brings 56 years of scouting experience to Toronto, including the past seven years as senior adviser to Texas Rangers general manager Jon Daniels.

He has also worked for the Detroit Tigers, Milwaukee Brewers, Los Angeles Dodgers, Seattle Mariners, Cleveland Indians, Arizona Diamondbacks, Baltimore Orioles and Montreal Expos, with whom he served as director of scouting and player development from 1970-75.

Queen, 67, is a familiar face to Toronto fans, having served as pitching coach from 1996-99 and replacing Cito Gaston as interim manager for the last five games of the 1997 MLB season.

The hirings represent the latest move by rookie GM Alex Anthopoulos to heighten the baseball savvy in Toronto’s front office.

Anthopoulos signed former Expos and Pittsburgh Pirates scouting director Dana Brown from the Washington Nationals as a special assistant to the GM, promoted Ryan Mittleman to co-ordinate amateur scouting and appointed Harry Einbinder to oversee pro scouting.