Yankees insider finally hints at international prospect bomb we've been bracing for

Despite Brian Cashman's insistence all along that Donny Rowland, in charge of the Yankees' international scouting operations for nearly 20 years, was allowed to leave because the time was right, it always seemed like there was more to the story.

Of course, Rowland's international malfeasance was more than enough reason to justify his departure; "Jasson Domínguez + ???" isn't a fantastic decade-long output at the cost of tens of millions. It was the abruptness of everything that followed his dismissal that set off alarm bells. Why did the Yankees' entire class try to find new homes? Why were pre-agreements dissolved, one-by-one, even with players the Yankees were reportedly in love with? Why did the dysfunction spread to future classes?

Could those in charge of the top talent in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela really have loved Rowland that much? They were so offended by his departure that they decided to backstab and curse the Yankees for the next five years?

As Bill Madden — a highly-connected writer with deep Yankees ties — sees it, there was probably more going on than Cashman alluded to in his brief comments on the process. A source clearly told Madden (cough, Randy Levine) that some money was being skimmed off the top of the bonuses the Yankees were offering to Dominican prospects. If true, the Yankees are certainly not the only team doing that kind of thing. But ... combine impropriety/an unclean house with the Yankees' repeated process failures, and you start to see some cracks.

Also, notice that Madden said Rowland was fired. Nobody else has been willing to use that language, preferring to note that his contract was up, and ... well, you can take it from there.

Former Yankees international scouting director Donny Rowland may have overseen "skimming" of millions of bonus money

Now, the department has been turned over to internal Yankees employee Mario Garza, a figure the organization clearly trusts (and one who, you'd think, was entirely disconnected from any overlooked scheme).

We may never know what really happened — whether the Yankees severed existing agreements with top names like Wandy Asigen because they didn't value the player as much as Rowland did, or because they were instructed to do so by the league so that more impropriety didn't leak. After Madden's column, that certainly seems like less of a tinfoil hat take and more like reality. We may only be "skimming" the surface here, but we're glad somebody got a few details out on the record.