Houston Astros To Part Ways With Ricky Bennett And Four Scouts

The Astros have been cleaning house for two years, but this season especially. House cleaning continued when it was announced on Tuesday that the club would not renew the contracts of Ricky Bennett -- director of professional scouting -- and four scouts.

This should not come as a surprise to Astros fans, considering all the moves that have been made from prospects to players to coaches. Earlier this month, the Astros decided against renewing the contracts of five amateur scouts -- Mike Brown (four corners, southern Nevada), Keith Bogan (Louisiana-Alabama-Mississippi-West Tennessee), Everett Stull (Georgia, South Carolina), John Kosciak (northeast) and Larry Pardo (south Florida and Puerto Rico), who signed No. 1 overall pick Carlos Correa of Puerto Rico.

Along with Bennett, Bryan Lambe, Jack Lind, Bob Rossi and Scipio Spinks are all set to have their contracts expire Oct. 31.

Here's Stros general manager Jeff Luhnow on the decision, via Brian McTaggart:

"This is a time of year that most baseball operations departments look at the possibility of changes for next year, so we're doing it as early as possible to give everybody as much time as possible to seek other opportunities. We're looking top to bottom at the pro scouting department, and we're going to be restructuring it, and part of the restructuring came with some personnel changes."

Bennett has spent the past eight seasons with the Stros, serving as assistant general manager and director of player development through his first six seasons before becoming director of professional scouting in 2011.

Read more on the Astros at The Crawfish Boxes and SB Nation Houston.