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Sam Menzin Resigns As Tigers’ Assistant GM Amid Lewd Photo Allegations

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April 7: Per a report from Britt Ghiroli and Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic, Menzin was under investigation for sending photos of his genitals to female staffers and was about to be fired before he resigned.

April 5: Tigers assistant general manager Sam Menzin resigned his position on Thursday, according to The Athletic’s Cody Stavenhagen.  Menzin had been working in this role since August 2021, and he briefly served as the club’s acting front office boss during the roughly six-week period between the firing of former GM Al Avila and Scott Harris’ hiring as the new president of baseball operations.

Though Menzin is only in his mid-30s, he had been one of the Tigers’ longest-tenured front office employees, as he started as a front office intern back in 2012.  He worked his way up the ladder in a variety of different roles, with a focus on the player development department.  Chris McCosky of the Detroit News notes that one of Menzin’s recent responsibilities included overseeing some upgrades to the Tigers’ Spring Training facility.

The timing of the resignation (just a week into the season) is a little unusual, and no reason was given for Menzin’s departure.  Speculatively speaking, it could be that Menzin simply felt it was time for a fresh start, if there was perhaps little room for immediate future advancement within Detroit’s front office.  Harris doesn’t appear to be going anywhere, and Jeff Greenberg was hired after the 2023 season in the GM role as Harris’ chief lieutenant in baseball ops.  Menzin was one of four assistant GMs in the front office, along with Ryan Garko, Rob Metzler, and Jay Sartori.

Harris: Tigers Plan To Hire General Manager

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The Tigers made their most important front office hire of the offseason yesterday, tabbing former Giants general manager Scott Harris as president of baseball operations. At a press conference this afternoon, Harris informed reporters (including Tony Paul of the Detroit News and Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free-Press) he’ll look for a new GM who can serve as his top lieutenant in baseball ops.

“These jobs are increasingly large and complicated,” Harris said. “Every single year they get more complex. Having another bright and talented person to partner with in these jobs is critically important. I think it gives you an edge, bringing more talented people to this front office and empowering them to make decisions that ultimately can put out a better team on the field. That’s what we’re trying to do, and I think a GM is going to be a big part of that.”

Harris himself had served in that role for the last three years, working as San Francisco’s GM under president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi. The Tigers gave him both an elevated title — a common occurrence for front office hirings, since teams often deny employees’ attempts to interview for lateral positions — and the opportunity to lead an organization for the first time. He’ll now search for a person to work in the point role he occupied for Zaidi the past few seasons in the Bay Area.

Last summer, former GM Al Avila promoted both Sam Menzin and Jay Sartori to assistant general manager. That makes both potential candidates for a bump to GM if the club stays internal. Menzin, it’s worth noting, led day-to-day baseball ops on an interim basis for the roughly five weeks between Avila’s dismissal and Harris’ hiring. While Harris didn’t mention either by name, he noted that internal executives would be under consideration if they fit the criteria he desires. Petzold speculates that Diamondbacks special assistant Jason McLeod could also garner a look, no surprise considering McLeod worked alongside Harris in the Cubs front office before the latter made the jump to San Francisco.

There’s no specific timeline for the GM hire, but Detroit’s front office heavy lifting is not finished. Harris will have final decision-making authority regardless of who is eventually tabbed. One of his key early calls will be settling upon a second-in-command.

Latest On Tigers’ General Manager Search

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It has been almost a month since the Tigers parted ways with GM Al Avila, and since Lynn Henning of The Detroit News notes that ownership puts a high priority on keeping matters close to the vest, there hasn’t been much public news about potential targets to take over the front office.  However, Hennig lists current Tigers assistant GM Sam Menzin, Dodgers senior VP of baseball ops Josh Byrnes, and Cardinals special assistant to the GM Matt Slater as “three people are believed to be under heavy consideration” for the full-time general manager role.

Several other front office members from multiple teams were also mentioned as plausible further candidates, though Henning was more circumspect about naming any of this group as surefire names in the hunt — Twins assistant GM Daniel Adler, Braves VP of scouting Dana Brown, Cardinals assistant GM Randy Flores, Guardians assistant GM James Harris, Orioles VP and assistant GM Sig Mejdal, Astros assistant GM Pete Putila, and Rays VP of baseball operations Carlos Rodriguez.  Former Tigers director of baseball operations Mike Smith could also potentially receive consideration.

There is no shortage of work ahead of Detroit’s next baseball operations leader, given how the Tigers have floundered in a season that was supposed to mark their return to contention.  While it isn’t expected that the Tigers will step back entirely into rebuild mode, the next GM will have to both make the big league team better while also bolstering the farm system at the same time.  According to league officials speaking with Henning, upgrading the Tigers’ international development system will be a priority, and “trades are expected to be made with more aggression and more initiative than was practiced by Avila.”  The next front office will also need to focus on how to better apply analytics to development and on-field work.

Byrnes is the most familiar name to baseball fans, and the former Padres/Diamondbacks GM is also the only one of the known candidates with experience in leading a front office.  Byrnes ran the D’Backs from 2006-2010 and then the Padres from 2011-14, in both cases being fired around midway through his final season with the organization.  Of those eight full and partial seasons for Byrnes, only two (2007 and 2008 with Arizona) resulted in a winning record, and the 2007 NL West-winning Diamondbacks were the only Byrnes team to reach the postseason.

Still only 52 years old, Byrnes’ long career in baseball has also included stretches as an assistant GM and VP with the Rockies, Red Sox, and (since 2014) Dodgers, and Byrnes has been a part of two World Series-winning front offices.  Back in August, the New York Post’s Jon Heyman suggested Byrnes as a natural candidate for Detroit given Byrnes’ past familiarity and working relationship with Tigers manager A.J. Hinch, who will be remaining with the team and will have some influence in the hiring of the next GM.

Menzin is also naturally a familiar face for Hinch, and Henning writes that the assistant GM “is known to enjoy great favor with Hinch.”  Only 31 years old, Menzin already has a decade of experience in Detroit’s front office, starting as an intern and gaining experience working within several different departments of the Tigers’ baseball operations.  Since Avila’s firing, Menzin has also been as the de facto interim general manager.

Slater doesn’t have any ties to Hinch or the Tigers organization, and given the amount of work that might need to be done, it is possible he might be attractive to the club as a fresh voice.  The 51-year-old Slater’s specific role with the Cardinals is in player procurement, with the St. Louis website describing him as the franchise’s “senior talent evaluator.”  The Cards’ excellent track record at finding and developing homegrown talent is certainly a point in Slater’s favor, and he has been with the team since 2007.  Before coming to St. Louis, Slater also worked in a number of different scouting and baseball ops roles with the Brewers, Orioles, and (for nine years) Dodgers.

Tigers Fire General Manager Al Avila

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The Tigers announced that they have parted ways with executive vice president and general manager Al Avila, effective immediately, per a press release from the team. Sam Menzin, vice president and assistant general manager, will continue as the day-to-day contact for the team, per the release. The club’s chairman and CEO Christopher Ilitch says that he will oversee the search for Avila’s replacement.

“Once I decided to make a change, I sat down with Al and thanked him for his nearly 22 years of service to our organization,” Ilitch says in the press release. “Al’s loyalty and dedication has served as an example to all during his time as a leader in our baseball operations department. I will oversee the search process for our next baseball operations leader, in collaboration with several members of our baseball and business operations executive teams.”

Avila is also quoted in the release: “For nearly 22 years, I have given my heart and soul to this franchise, and I want to thank Mr. and Mrs. Ilitch, along with Chris, for the opportunity and treating me and my family as their own,” he says. “We’ve celebrated successes and enjoyed great moments, and I’m proud to have worked with so many talented people in baseball operations and throughout the organization. I’ll cherish our friendships and the successes we all celebrated together. To Tigers fans, you’re the best and you deserve a winner. I wish the results would have been better this season but know there is a lot to look forward to in the coming years.”

Avila, 64, has been the club’s general manager for a few years now, taking over in late 2015 when Dave Dombrowski departed. The club has effectively been in a deep rebuild for the entirety of his tenure, registering a winning percentage below .400 for four straight seasons from 2017 to 2020. They showed some signs of promise last year and then acted aggressively this winter, hoping to return to contention this season. However, they’ve instead suffered a dismal campaign, compounded by various injuries, resulting in a club sporting a record of 43-68, ahead of only the A’s among American League teams. With the rebuild struggling to bear fruit, it seems the club has decided to change course and will begin looking for a new front office arrangement for the upcoming offseason.

Though Avila’s been the key front office person in Detroit for seven years now, his time with the club actually goes back much farther. He was first hired in 2002, having already accrued a decade of experience in baseball, first with the Marlins and then the Pirates. His first role with the Tigers was assistant general manager and vice president, until his promotion, which made him the first Cuban-born general manager in baseball history.

When he took over as general manager in August of 2015, the rebuild had essentially already begun, as the club traded David Price, Yoenis Cespedes and Joakim Soria prior to the trade deadline, while Dombrowski was still at the helm. The club managed to put up a winning record in 2016 but was dismal in the seasons after that. They bottomed out in 2019, going 47-114 for a winning percentage of just .292.

Of course, one benefit of poor seasons is the ability to restock the farm system, with the Tigers having a number of high profile first round draft picks in recent years. Matt Manning, Alex Faedo, Casey Mize, Riley Greene, Spencer Torkelson, Jackson Jobe and Jace Jung have been the club’s first round picks since Avila took over, with both Mize and Torkelson having been selected first overall.

With some of that group reaching the majors in recent years, the club had a decent showing in 2021. Their 77-85 record was much more palatable than previous seasons, leading the team to believe it was time to act aggressively and be done with the tanking process. The Tigers followed through by spending big, giving a $140MM contract to Javier Baez, $77MM to Eduardo Rodriguez, $13MM to Andrew Chafin and $5.5MM to Michael Pineda. The club also turned to the trade market, acquiring Tucker Barnhart from the Reds and Austin Meadows from the Rays.

Unfortunately, all of those moves have failed to work out for various reasons, which only compounded other issues on the roster. The mercurial Baez is hitting .220/.262/.372 on the season for a wRC+ of 77. Rodriguez has only made eight starts for the team due to injuries and personal issues. Chafin has pitched well but he can opt-out of the second year of his deal, which he seems likely to do. Pineda has only made ten starts due to injuries and has a 5.27 ERA on the year. Barnhart has hit .198/.258/.228 for a wRC+ of 41, while Meadows has only played 36 games due to various injuries.

In addition to the struggles of the new additions, the club’s core pieces also failed to deliver in different ways. Former first overall pick Spencer Torkelson made the Opening Day roster but struggled enough to get optioned down to the minors last month. Riley Greene missed the start of the season due to injury and has hit at a below-average level since joining the team. Matt Manning has been limited to just four starts on the year due to injuries, while Mize made just two appearances before Tommy John surgery ended his season.

Not all of that can be placed at Avila’s feet, of course, certainly not the injuries. Still, after years and years of agonizing rebuilding, the club and its fans were surely hoping for more signs of good things to come over the horizon and have found little to none of it this year.

Ilitch and the Tigers will now try to find a new leader to guide the team into its next stage. Given the club’s struggles this year, the organization will be looking ahead to another strong draft position next summer, in order to add to the talent youngsters who, despite their struggles in 2022, could still be key players in seasons to come. There’s also another important pivot point coming up over the horizon, as the last guaranteed season of Miguel Cabrera’s massive contract is 2023, which will free up both a roster spot and plenty of payroll space. The person who decides how to handle those situations in the future will be determined in the months to come.

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