Detroit Tigers: What’s next after the hiring of Scott Harris?

Where does the Detroit Tigers organization go from here?

After a little over a month’s worth of searching, with little firm reports of who the organization was actually interesting in, the Detroit Tigers finally have their new front office leader in former Giants’ GM Scott Harris, who will hold the title of president of baseball operations.

Harris has quite the background, getting an economics degree from UCLA, an MBA from Northwestern, getting a job in the Cubs’ front office at just 25 years old, and working with fantastic baseball minds such as Theo Epstein and Farhan Zaidi. It seems like a good hire on paper, and many experts agree.

Now that the Detroit Tigers have their new top dog in the front office, the next question, naturally, is what comes next? Where does this organizations go from here? Let’s break things down.

First off, just get through the rest of this season. 2022 has been a wash for a while now, so just get through it without any more major injuries and hopefully with some positive development from the young players.

After the season ends, Harris has some work to do. The organization has a litany of decisions to make with this roster. Many guys that are on the roster and getting playing time right now, probably won’t be come Opening Day 2023.

But the biggest question that remains is will the Detroit Tigers hire a GM to work with him? After all, he was the GM under Zaidi in San Francisco. Other teams that have a president of baseball ops/GM duo include the Twins, Dodgers, Phillies, Brewers, and others.

If they do decide to go that route, Sam Menzin is a natural candidate for the position. He’s been with the organization for a while, he’s worked his way up, and is well-respected not just within the organization, but within baseball circles as well.

Another question is that since Harris was given the title of president of baseball operations, does that mean that Chris Ilitch is going to hand him the keys and go full hands-off? Time will tell on that.

Harris has a lot of work ahead of them in getting this organization in a winning state. It may take more than one offseason to get everything in place. One thing’s for sure: Harris is a smart baseball mind, which is exactly what the Detroit Tigers need to get them back on track.