Mike Shirley is out in Chicago.
Over the weekend, on the eve of a Saturday game against the Cardinals at Busch Stadium, Chicago confirmed that Shirley had resigned as its director of amateur scouting. Just a month after selecting UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky with the No. 1 pick -- a selection loaded with fanfare, Shirley received an abrupt farewell with very little detail provided. The organization's official position, delivered with the warmth of a legal disclaimer, is that it "does not comment on personnel decisions." And so a man who spent close to three decades inside that scouting department exited through a side door, in silence, in the middle of a pennant-race weekend.
Multiple reports from several outlets have suggested some misdoings from Shirley over the course of the last year or so. So depending on which account you read, Shirley either resigned — a clean, voluntary parting — or …