CARY, N.C. – USA Baseball today announced the naming of Chris Lionetti as its Director of Player Identification. Following six years of scouting experience with the Atlanta Braves, Lionetti will be responsible for identifying candidates for the Collegiate National Team, 18U National Team, and 16U/17U National Team Development Program. He will also identify candidates for joint MLB and USA Baseball events such as the Appalachian League, MLB Draft Combine, Prospect Development Pipeline (PDP) League, and PDP Premier events.

Lionetti will also be the organization’s liaison with the 30 MLB Clubs related to player identification and performance analysis, and assist all youth national team and development programs with player selection.

"We are extremely excited to welcome Chris Lionetti to the USA Baseball family as our first Director of Player Identification,” said USA Baseball Executive Director/CEO Paul Seiler. “Chris brings invaluable experience scouting the amateur baseball landscape on behalf of a Major League Club. We look forward to following his lead in the creation of a player identification system at USA Baseball and enhancing the talent pool for our identification events and national team programs.”

“I am both excited and honored to be named USA Baseball’s first Director of Player Identification,” said Lionetti. “The scouting community helped raise me in baseball and I look forward to using those experiences to contribute to USA Baseball’s standard of excellence. I cannot thank my mentors enough for making this opportunity a reality and I am ready to hit the road in search of players to represent our country.”

Lionetti began his professional career as a scouting intern with the Braves in January 2015 before being promoted to a scouting assistant in October. While in that position, he helped create an in-house scouting system, oversaw recruiting of players for the Braves Scout Team, and scouted more than 100 athletes annually, including Ian Anderson, Austin Riley, and Kyle Wright.

In January of 2018, Lionetti was once again promoted within Atlanta’s organization, serving as a scouting coordinator until he was named the Area Supervisor for the State of Georgia in October 2019. In his past few years with the Braves, he recruited players for “The Prospect World Series,” served as a liaison between the front office and athletes during contract negotiations, filed scouting and character reports, and assisted in creating camp and showcase opportunities for underserved athletes.

Lionetti received his bachelor’s degree in science and sports management in 2014 from the University of Georgia.

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