The Tigers announced Thursday morning that they’ve hired Jeff Greenberg as their new general manager. The 37-year-old Greenberg worked with current Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris with the Cubs, serving as the team’s director of pro scouting, director of baseball operations and assistant general manager during an 11-year career there. In 2022, Greenberg was hired away from baseball entirely, joining the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks as an associate general manager, but he’ll return to MLB and occupy a critical role as the No. 2 name on the Tigers’ revamped baseball operations hierarchy.
“I’m thrilled to add an executive of Jeff’s quality to our baseball operations leadership team,” Harris said in a press release this morning. “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.”
Per the Tigers’ press release, Greenberg “oversaw the strategic systems and processes in hockey operations” with the Blackhawks, while also having a hand in scouting and player development. That vantage point in another sport figures to indeed bring some unique perspective to his new role with the Tigers organization.
“It’s an extraordinary honor to take on this role with one of the most historic franchises in Major League Baseball,” Greenberg said in his own statement. “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.”
The Tigers’ front office has seen a good amount of turnover since Al Avila was fired as general manager a year ago. Longtime Tigers assistant GM David Chadd also parted ways with the organization in the aftermath of Avila’s dismissal, reuniting with former Tigers president Dave Dombrowski in Philadelphia. Scouting director Scott Pleis was not retained after spending a decade in that role.
Greenberg joins Harris and assistant GM Rob Metzler — hired away from the Rays — as high-profile external additions who’ve joined the baseball operations department in the past year. There’s certainly been some continuity as well, however. Assistant general managers Jay Sartori and Sam Menzin, vice president of player personnel Scott Bream, and vice president of player development Ryan Garko were all retained by the new regime and still hold those same titles.
Can he bring Connor Bedard?
I would trade Lucas Raymond for Bedard
ERod wants to finish his contract here
HARRIS’ first choice was Chris Getz, but he was taken.
Hope he works out as well as Hank Greenberg did for the Tigers
Any relation?
Same last name.
The thing that Greenberg is noted for is his analytics and strong scouting presence. Harris has known him for years and he’s been involved in some pretty good players being drafted. You should be happy, Not whining.
@Unclemike1526 he’s not whining.. Hammerin Hank was a Tigers legend. He’s stating that he hopes he works out as well as Hank on the team building side. Hank Greenberg won 2 WS with the Tigers.
There’s only 1 “Hammerin Hank” and it’s not Hank Greenberg. You just can’t recycle the nickname of a Hall of Famer at your own discretion.
Please, everyone, run your nickname posts through ‘mlb fan’. At least until his middle school studies are paused while he is schooled in MLB Hall of Famers.
Which legendary HOF Hank actually has the recycled nickname, mlb? You apparently will be shocked by the answer.
There are literally thousands of both “Hammerin’” and “Hammering” Hank baseball references found in Newspapers.com prior to Henry Aaron getting his drivers license. Most were for Greenberg.
Perhaps it is best that you leave the smarm for those with actual knowledge.
You might have had a point when the nickname was used for someone like Hank Lieber by ink-stained sports scribe Blinky Post of the Birmingham News in May, 1934, but only if you called it.
You guys stole those nicknames from Hammerin’ Bob Hamelin. He had it first!
Sorry bud, Greenberg was ‘Hammerin’ Hank’ when Henry Aaron was still playing sandlot ball in Mobile. Kinda like Carlton Fisk was ‘Pudge’ when Ivan Rodriguez was still loading his pampers as a toddler. But it’s okay.
Also, a former Tiger, lol.
Hammerin’ Hank Greenberg had the nickname first. Pudge Rodriguez and Pudge Fisk? They rehash those nicknames regularly.
Sorry mlb fan. Greenberg was indeed “hammerin hank..”
Greenbergs 1938 slash line: 315/438/683, 58HR, 147 RBI, 143 runs. Somehow only finished 3rd in MVP voting. Wild
Hammerin Hank Greenberg was inducted into the HOF in 1956 when Hammerin Hank Aaron only had 66 MLB HRs.
Greenberg’s nickname was not “Hammerin” it was “Hebrew Hammer”.
Check out Baseball Reference under nickname.
baseball-reference.com/players/g/greenha01.shtml
Greenbergs & Tigers go well together. Good choice.
Finally Harris makes a good move. Still doesn’t make up for the draft, free agency, the trade deadline, wavier claims or for keeping Hinch, but still..
Stop whining. Harris made some low-risk free agency signings (Lorenzen and Shreve) that worked out. He claimed Andy Ibanez and Tyler Holton off waivers, both pretty decent. The draft will turn out to be a solid one even if you’re sore he didn’t draft a corner outfielder (Wyatt Langford, admittedly a great prospect rather than going up the middle like you should with a high first rounder.
My only serious doubt about Harris was when E-Rod nixed the trade to the Dodgers. I can’t believe Harris didn’t know about E-Rod’s limited no-trade clause. More likely, E-rod approved the trade and then backed out; Harris didn’t want to throw his player under the bus and was instead willing to look foolish.
Discretion over valor
Maybe ERod agreed but then LA wanted him to decline his opt out. He choose to keep it as his player right and declined the trade.
Hey! Why NOT keep Hinch? Geez, considering he started the season with a bunch of injuries, rookies, has-beens and never-wases, I think 70+ wins is pretty good! Same for the previous 2 seasons, especially ’21. If he ever gets some bats into that lineup, WE ARE GONNA WIN!!
Reason #1: They had to send Maton to the Minors in order to stop Hinch from batting him 4th.
Shreve worked out so well he was DFA’ed,
Matthew Boyd was a waste of 10m.
The Phillies essentially stole Soto
Max Clark will bust while Langford will get ROY votes next year..
But the Red Wings will have a 100 point season, and the Lions are legit enough to win their division so people in Detroit won’t really notice (or care) what a failure Harris is.
Yeah, Dombrowski sure stole that -0.1 WAR Soto from the Tigers! The trade was a nothingburger for either side. Shreve was ok, but expendable to make way for youngsters. Boyd was a poor signing, but who knew TJ was in his future just two years after having primary repair or whatever he had done?
Langford might just be ROY, but no one knows what an 18 year old Max Clark will become. He looks like a complete ballplayer to me.
More likely Langford will be voted into the HOF next year. He’s obviously so great he won’t even have to play, just straight into the HOF.
I’m indifferent about the Tigers so I’m not saying this based on hope, but I have no idea how anyone could be unhappy with Harris’ one year performance in any of those categories.
The Tigers draft was very solid, IMO. Max Clark has Corbin Carroll upside and was the better pick than Langford to many people who have watched more than just YouTube video of both guys. McGonigle was a great pick at 37. After that, it was safe and solid. I especially like Bennett Lee in the 7th. He could be an everyday big league catcher, if developed correctly.
Free agency, I’m not sure what you wanted. Everyone says the owner is cheap and Harris went and got reasonably priced one year deals. Most of last year’s big ticket FAs have been year one flops on new deals anyway (Turner, Correa, deGrom, Bogaerts, Rodon, Diaz, Contreras, Rizzo, etc). Nobody thought Lorenzen would fetch a return, and he’s stunk since being traded, no-hitter aside.
Waiver claims are hit or miss. Kind of a silly thing to complain about.
Keeping Hinch is the right move, at least for now. He works well with young guys and is the right guy for a rebuild, I think.
Langford > Clark Yesterday, today and in the future.
McGonigle is a singles hitting 2B that can’t play 2B.
He signed pitchers to a team that was the worst offense in centuries.
He dumped Candelario without having a plan B.
I hope Greenberg knows baseball more than Harris.
Melchez you are sooo negative!
AJ Hinch was part of the interviewing process in hiring Scott Harris. In Detroit, Manager hires are not in the GMs control.
The owner is not cheap. He inherited the largest overall deadweight payroll in MLB then had to honor those contracts at the detriment to the organization. The former GM then handed out heavy contracts to two low character selfish individuals, once again, to the detriment to the organization.
I hope Jeff Greenberg works out. From what very little I’ve heard, scouting and player evaluation is his forte. It’s more important for a Front office to operate as a team even more than the players on the field.
Two words: Tyler Holton
That is all.
Four words: Jaimer Candelario, Willi Castro
Interested to see what the new GM brings…everyone said it needed to happen and they did it.
It was a great draft. They got McGonigle because of the savings on Clark and both could well be be starters plus some swag later on. The trade deadline only sucked because of the Erod issue (which is partly on Erod) but the Lorenzen trade and picking Eddys Leonard up for nothing are wins…and they can resign Lorenzen in the offseason if they want him back. Waiver wire is a crap shoot but he found contributors there like Holton. I personally was hoping to see more minor leaguers brought up (Keith and Malloy). Hinch is a good coach so not sure where that comes from. Lorenzen was a win and I think Boyd was an okay signing…team guy and the ERA is misleading. I don’t give them an A but I don’t think it was a disaster by any means.
This offseason is the next test.
Motor City – I agree with many of the things you wrote, but unless E-Rod agreed and then backed out as was hypothetically posed earlier by Hemlock, I don’t see how messing up that trade is his fault.
You’re right, it is still on Harris to have a backup plan but something stinks on Erods end too. By the way love the user name El Duderino. Lebowski rocks. Cheers
For some reason I thought he was a relative of Hank Greenberg…
Yeah such an uncommon last name right?
Any relation to Greeny?
Considering a lot people with the last Greenberg are nicknamed Greeny, yes is his related.
Was the hockey-themed home run celebration a foreshadowing of things to come?
Are we sure this isn’t a Red Wings press release? At least next year’s Tigers will lead the league in penalty minutes. The next inside pitch will see Torkelson dropping the gloves!
This isn’t bringing in someone with a new perspective. Its bringing in someone who will agree with HARRIS, He’s hiring a crony that has agreed with him in the past. If he’s able to move Javy, I will become a believer, though.
.
Javy is going to be tough to move even if Detroit eats most of his contract. He’s been pretty mediocre since joining the Tigers.
Mediocre? He’s probably the worst starting shortstop in all of MLB!
acoss- Baez has finally devolved into what the Cubs always thought he would be. A strikeout machine. His complete refusal to ever change his approach and his desire to hit every pitch has come to it’s inevitable conclusion. Failure. But at least you can’t blame that on Harris. He was already there when Harris arrived.
Unclemike – I admit I am biased since Javy was part of the 2016 Cubs, but has sunk pretty low now.
If they throw in Max Clark and $100m I’ll bet somebody would take Baez off their hands still.
Greenberg is going to have to see what he has…
Another couple years lost.
He is the GM, not the POBO. That is Scott Harris and he has been there a season. He knows what he has.
He knows what he has now? LOL Are you sure?
Harris is a clown. POBO the Clown.
I hope Greenberg knows what he has. It’s pretty obvious. Every fan knows. He should ask one of them if he doesn’t.
Remember when the team was criticized for moving Castellanos around defensively? They are doing it again with Keith.
History repeating itself?
You looking in the mirror again? What a pathetic take from someone that didn’t even realize that Greenberg won’t be making the calls.
Tigers answer is to hire a guy who was part of the downward spiral that is the Chicago Blackhawks?
This doesn’t seem good.
Doesn’t seem right. Honestly, this feels like the Bob Quinn’s hiring of Matt Patricia. The same smoke blowing is there, saying he was a key cog in a championship to justify the lack of top level experience. Hopefully, I’m wrong. Just got that feeling tho
He spent 12 years in the Cubs organization working his way up the ladder and 1 year with the Blackhawks.
Beats Alex Avila
I’m not sure they beat Avila. It’s taking 3 guys to replace him and a bunch of Avila’s talent is coming up.
I see the old-boys network continues to operate strongly. Gotta hitch yourself to the right star or you get spit out of the industry. But pick right, and you can do no wrong. I doubt they even interviewed anyone else.
I don’t think they interviewed anyone else either. My bet is Greenburg had already signed the Blackhawks Contract & Harris had to wait for it to expire to hire Greenburg. Just my guess,
It’s the BUDDY SYSTEM.
Sell the team, already.
So many fans ragging on Harris seems to be ridiculous, especially following the clown show routine of Avilla. I like much of what he has done so far. The botched LAD trade seemed to be on the Dodgers and they gifted us Eddys Leanard. He looks to be a better prospect than anyone Al ever traded for. Keep it movin’ Scott…
Leo is an intriguing prospect for sure especially for cash considerations. This offseason will be interesting having some money freed up and some young pitching depth that could be dealt to fill holes.
Prospects that Avila traded for:
Jake Rogers
Reese Olson
Sawyer Gipson-Long
Joey Wentz
Alex Lange
3 of their current 5 starters isn’t too shabby at all for returns from rental trades.
Just like Malloy, Leonard is a wait and see. Tyler Nevin has put up better numbers than them in his minor league career. Until they make and stick in the show, its all potential, and not results.
Lange and Olson were steals. Agree. Jake Rogers for Justin Verlander? No way! Wentz doesn’t look like much, but they only gave up Shane Greene so no loss. Gipson-Long is intriguing.
But look at the weak drafts and poor FA signings during Avila’s reign even though there are exceptions (Skubal, Carpenter). The guy will never work in a front office again except maybe as a coffee runner.
His drafts are providing the Tigers with their current team. Torkelson, Greene, Carpenter, Mize, Skubal, Manning, Faedo, Brieske, Foley are all from his drafts, with Keith, Bigbie, Kriedler, Dingler, Jung, Pacheco, Campos, Madden, Flores, Jobe waiting in the wings.
But yeah, his FA signings sucked.
Tyler Nevin almost made me stop watching Tigers baseball, but his numbers in the minors were really good this year. Malloy’s were better though and Leonard is sure rocking his first kick at AAA and enjoying the fruits of the change of scenery.
As for the names above that Avila traded for, most if them gave blossomed this year under Harris’ regime, so let’s put a big asterisk besides them.
Harris has had good and bad points this year but I think the good outweighs the bad. This offseason is “show me” time though. He had his year to assess and tinker and now it’s time for some more action.
And Olson is starting to look like a #3 starter at least.
At least Avila had outfielders who could bounce a ball off their heads into the stands for an assist. You don’t see that everyday. I tell you, the man could scout talent… That’s entertainment!
Interesting hire.. last time the Tigers had a Greenberg they won 2 WS titles over the Chicago Cubs of all teams. So perhaps this is a sign of things to come in the next decade or so. He seems like a great hire.
did they even look at my resume
Stop picking on Harris, and pick on Ilitch instead. Harris inherited very little in terms of money, and the Rays weren’t built overnight. He wasn’t given many prospects to build off of, and honestly, the biggest goal for this season, postseason contention aside, was seeing real progress from Torkelson, Greene, Skubal, et al. Harris’ coaching staff hires have something to say about the progress those guys have made. I’m excited to see what Greenberg can do.
He didn’t “inherit” a payroll. You’re correct in that’s given from Illitch. Almost every one on the team is a prospect, as Miggy, E-Rod, and Boyd were the only established players. The new coaches have helped the hitters, but Avila is who hired the pitching coaches. Keep working your narrative though. I will give HARRIS credit when he does something, but he didn’t really try before the season, and he screwed the pooch at the trade deadline. He added Ibanez but cut Willi Castro. He added McKinstry, but cut Harold. I’d call both pushes at this point. Cutting Candelario was a HUGE error. The few waiver claims that have worked out is very small compared to the number he made. Only Holton looks like he will be on the team for sure next year. Ibanez and McKinstry will depend on who they add in the off season.
Candelario put up terrible numbers in 2022. .217/.272/.361/.633 with an 81 OPS+ and a 0.6 WAR. In his career he had only one seasons above league average. Moving on from him was widely expected with his $5+ million price tag.
As much as I hate to agree, it did make sense. Congrats to Candy for responding the way he has. The Tigers have had a lot of bad luck in a lot of ways over the course of this rebuild.
Rah rah! Go Team!
Great hire. Greenberg is the baseball ops, traditional scouting, sports rat kind of guy to balance Harris’ analytics mind.
Let hope he realizes, nobody likes to finish in second place……
See now, had they hired the Superduper in the first place, there would be WWF Tigers (stuffed animinals) at the stadium next Sunday for everyone and Mr. ILLICH would be proving he is NOT CHEAP by announcing.the Illich families support for the World Wildlife Federations’ effort to save ENDANGERED ANIMALS LIKE THE TIGER.
Harris – has obviously never been in a room with…
The Superfife.
This would have been an annual event, the first AND last home game of every season…..
No one cares like the Superfife…..
Why did they hire this guy and not me?
I have almost 60 years STUDYING THE PROBLEM, THIS GUY WASN’T EVEN BORN YET!!!!
IT IS AGE DISCRIMINATION!
I loved Jeff Greenberg in Jurassic Park.
Didn’t hire the Superfife.
Obviously, IT IS AGE DISCRIMINATION!
NO World Wildlife Federation Tigers at the park today.
Obviously, no one in the organization cares like the Superfife does.
Hey, that doesn’t matter…because we discriminate against older people….
That’s OK. It’s trendy.