Detroit Tigers: Sam Menzin is the perfect fit for the GM role under Harris

Detroit Tigers should hire Sam Menzin as general manager.

The Detroit Tigers announced big news on Monday, shifting the course of the team’s rebuild for the long run. The team went out and grabbed their new president of baseball operations in a move that brought Scott Harris over from the San Francisco Giants.

There are plenty of reasons to like Harris and what he will do for the Detroit Tigers organization. Along with a leader in the front office, after one is fired, personnel changes are to be expected.

It’s similar to the rhetoric around an NFL GM being brought in. The new GM wants to get “his guys” in there. While there will be some holdovers, there will be personnel who move on from the Tigers following Harris’s arrival.

One member of the front office member who should be a holdover who sticks around is Sam Menzin. The Tigers should be hiring Sam Menzin to serve under Scott Harris as soon as possible if they genuinely want to have the best minds on the job at the top.

Menzin served as Al Avila’s right-hand man before Avila was fired in August. He has worked his way up through the organization garnering plenty of respect along the way. Menzin has the makings to be a future front-office leader one-day.

Getting the promotion from the assistant general manager chair into the GM’s chair would be a great vote of confidence for him. Menzin has learned the ins and outs of the organization and could be a significant asset to Harris if he so chooses. Letting Menzin go seems like a poor decision as they should be aiming to keep him in Detroit.

Sam Menzin deserves a promotion with the Detroit Tigers.

One of the targets the Detroit Tigers had during their hiring process was Menzin as the in-house candidate. Ultimately, the team has brought in Harris, but the interesting little tidbit is the gap left with his hiring announcement.

Stavenhagen notes here that Avila was the executive vice president of baseball ops and general manager. There are so many layers to baseball front offices, and the titles can be confusing, but there are some reasons to believe that they may add in a general manager as well.

Harris may not be the only hire to add to this team’s front office ahead of the 2023 season. Harris was in Menzin’s position with the Cubs as an assistant general manager and then was in a similar role with the Giants.

With the Giants, Harris worked under brilliant baseball mind Farhan Zaidi, the President of Baseball Operations there. For Harris, he was the Giants’ general manager, working with Zaidi to get the job done.

Now with the Tigers, bringing in Menzin as the general manager to reside under him on the organizational depth chart might not be the worst idea. He has the tools, knowledge of this organization, knowledge of what was not working with the last regime, and a great baseball mind.

If Menzin does not stick around with the Tigers, I’d expect him to latch on with another organization and succeed in that front office. Keeping him in the Motor City and giving him the GM tag feels like the right move.