NEW YORK -- Former New York Mets general manager Omar Minaya was hired by Major League Baseball on Wednesday as a consultant for amateur scouting.

He will advise the baseball operations department on both domestic and international scouting initiatives. Minaya will report to Morgan Sword, the executive vice president of baseball operations.

Minaya, 63, became a scout with the Texas Rangers in 1984 and signed Sammy Sosa. He moved up eventually to director of professional and international scouting and left in September 1997 to become an assistant general manager with his hometown Mets.

He joined the Montreal Expos as major league baseball's first Hispanic GM in February 2002. Minaya returned to the Mets as GM from September 2004 until October 2010, then was fired and became San Diego's senior vice president of baseball operations from December 2011 until January 2015.

He served as senior adviser to players' association head Tony Clark until December 2017, then rejoined the Mets as a special assistant until November 2020.