CHICAGO —When the White Sox signed Luis Robert Jr. in 2017 for $26 million dollars, the young outfielder was Major League Baseball’s top-ranked international prospect.

Marco Paddy helped the Sox ink Robert, just as he did for the team when they signed Jose Abreu, Oscar Colas, and Yoelqui Cespedes.

Paddy is now the Sox Special Assistant to the General Manager in charge of international operations and last year was named international scout of the year.

He was in Chicago Saturday to receive the Roland Hemond Award from the Society of American Baseball Research where WGN’s Josh Frydman sat down to discuss Robert’s rise to All-Star level and when Paddy remembers first watching him play.