The impact that Eric Kubota has had on the A’s franchise in his 41 years with the club has been tremendous, and over the past 24 years that he has been the team’s scouting director, he’s been responsible for some pretty big signings.

Some of the standout All Stars that have been signed by Kubota have been Andrew Bailey (2009, 2010), Matt Chapman (2019) and Mason Miller (2024) along with a slew of players in between. He has also been responsible for three Rookie of the Year award winners, beginning with Huston Street (2005), then Bailey (2009) and finally Nick Kurtz (2025).

We haven’t been around Kubota as much as some of the outlets that cover the club, but in our experiences with him after the draft each year, he has been a terrific source of information on the draftees the A’s have selected, and also a pretty good quote, which is always helpful.

This week, Kubota was given the Tony Gwynn Award by Baseball America for his contributions to the game of baseball, which have all benefitted the A’s. Below is the press release that was sent out by the club.

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A’s Director of Scouting Eric Kubota has been named the winner of the Tony Gwynn Award, a lifetime achievement award presented annually by Baseball America for the greatest contributions to the game. 

Kubota, who is entering his 41st season with the A’s, has served as Director of Scouting for the past 24 seasons. During his tenure, the A’s have drafted and signed 114 players who have reached the majors. 

Among those players, 18 have been named All-Stars, three have been named American League Rookie of the Year, four have won Gold Glove Awards, and three have won Silver Slugger Awards. Hitters drafted under Kubota have combined to record 14,896 hits and 2,190 home runs, while pitchers have collected 425 wins, 521 saves, and 6,143 strikeouts.

Kubota began his baseball career in June of 1984, while he was an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley, spending the better part of six seasons working in the A’s media relations department.

In November of 1989, he joined the baseball operations staff as an assistant director of scouting, and he was elevated to Pacific Rim coordinator in November of 1996, where he acted as a liaison between the A’s and Asian baseball teams in addition to his scouting duties in Northern California and Hawaii.

Prior to assuming his current position, Kubota served as the club’s supervisor of international scouting for three seasons, overseeing the scouting staff and player evaluations in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela.

In January 2014, he was honored as Scout of the Year by the Santa Clara County Hot Stove Committee and in 2022 he was named the Scout of the Year by the Scout of the Year Foundation.

Kubota graduated from Cal in 1986 with a bachelor of arts degree in political science. He and his wife, Karen, have two children.

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