Tigers fill out front office by hiring new general manager from NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks

The Detroit Tigers rounded out their higher ranges of the front office on Thursday by hiring Jeff Greenberg as general manager. Detroit made the announcement Thursday morning.

We’ll get to Greenberg in a 2d, however keep in mind that some front places of work of Major League Baseball are nonetheless present process shifts in titles within the front office. The Tigers fired general manager Al Avila ultimate August and changed him with Scott Harris. Harris was once given the name president of baseball operations, on the other hand, so whilst he was once pleasing the similar tasks as Avila, the Tigers technically did not have a general manager. 

The general manager on this construction is an additional upper-level control individual — popularized by the Cubs with Theo Epstein as president and Jed Hoyer as general manager — and that individual is now Greenberg. He has maximum not too long ago been an affiliate general manager of the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks. 

Speaking of the Cubs, each Harris and Greenberg come from the baseball operation at the North Side of Chicago. Harris labored for seven years underneath Epstein, going from director of baseball operations to assistant general manager. Greenberg spent 11 seasons with the Cubs, emerging additionally to assistant general manager. 

In a press unencumber, the Tigers pointed out Greenberg “played a key role in creating the systems and strategies that helped the Cubs scout and develop talent, leading to five postseason appearances during his tenure, including the 2016 World Series championship.”

“I’m thrilled to add an executive of Jeff’s quality to our baseball operations leadership team,” Harris mentioned in a remark. “Throughout this search, it was important for me to find someone who can fit seamlessly into the culture we’re building here. I also wanted to bring in someone with a fresh perspective and new ideas that could challenge us on a daily basis and make us all better as we strive towards our goal of bringing postseason baseball back to Detroit. We’re excited to welcome Jeff, his wife, Erin, and their sons, Leo and Sam to the Tigers family.”

“It’s an extraordinary honor to take on this role with one of the most historic franchises in Major League Baseball,” Greenberg added within the unencumber. “Throughout my conversations with Scott, Chris Ilitch and the rest of the team with the Tigers, it became clear that this organization is headed in a great direction with an incredible culture of development and innovation that I’m excited to be part of. Another constant message in those conversations was that Tigers fans want to see winning baseball deep into October. I’m excited to get to work with our front office on off-season and longer-term plans to make that our reality.”

After 4 directly department titles from 2011-14, the Tigers are actually tied with the Angels for the longest playoff drought in Major League Baseball. They misplaced 98 video games in each 2017 and 2018 sooner than bottoming out at 114 losses in 2019. After a 96-loss season ultimate yr, the Tigers this season are 71-81.