Detroit Tigers: Grading Scott Harris' first year on the job

Trades/trade deadline: D-

It has not been good so far on the trade front. We did separate grades for both the Gregory Soto trade and the trade deadline, so we won't go too much into depth here, but Harris is not off to a good start in the trade department.

In short, the Gregory Soto trade has been a dud. Soto has been great for the Phillies outside of a few blowup outings. Nick Maton was terrible, Matt Vierling can't hit for power, and Donny Sands has flamed out in Triple-A. That has not been a good trade for the Tigers.

We did touch on this earlier, but the early returns on the Lorenzen trade appear to be in favor of the Tigers, so Harris gets some points there. But now we have to get to the elephant in the room.

Harris botched the Eduardo Rodriguez trade. Yes, E-rod backed out at the 11th hour, but he didn't have a backup plan. Even if he would have gotten less for him than what the Dodgers offered, it would have been better than losing him for nothing.

Now, he's basically forced to re-sign E-rod. Letting him opt out and sign with another team would put the nail in the coffin on a colossal mistake.

So far, Harris is not good at trades. Very low grade from us.

Draft: B

Many people may be surprised by the respectable grade for the draft, but allow us to delve into why.

Harris opted to take a player in Max Clark, whom he believed had the highest ceiling in the draft, over Wyatt Langford, who could help the Tigers out sooner rather than later. Many people are still upset about that, especially since Langford as raked ever since he was drafted, and is already in Triple-A in the Texas Rangers system.

But here's the difference — Clark is an 18-year-old drafted out of high school, and Langford is a 21-year-old drafted out of college. Of course Langford is going to be ahead of Clark in his development. He's got three years on him.

Clark can still be great player. He may not even be done growing yet. Pump the brakes, people.

With that out of the way, the rest of the draft is looking pretty solid so far. Harris and Mark Conner took a different approach than the Avila regime, opting for the best hit tools possible, rather than just taking the best college player available and hoping for the best.

That looks to be a pretty good strategy so far, though it's still very early. Kevin McGonigle was considered by many to be a first-round talent, and the Tigers nabbed him with the 37th overall pick. He hit .350 and walked more than he struck out in 18 games in Low-A.

The Tigers took nine high school players in total, which was the most prep players they had taken in years. It's a different strategy, and we're here for it.

Harris gets a B for the draft. The early returns have been solid. Hopefully they stay that way.

Handling of prospects: D

Remember when Harris said the Tigers would be earmarking at-bats for young players? Up until recently with the promotions of Parker Meadows, Andre Lipcius, and Sawyer Gipson-Long, we really hadn't seen any of that.

Quad-A players like Zach McKinstry, Zack Short, Andy Ibanez, and for a while, Jonathan Schoop and Eric Haase were getting at-bats over prospects that deserved a chance to prove themselves.

There's no reasonable explanation as to why Colt Keith and Justyn-Henry Malloy aren't on the big league roster right now. Neither of them have anything left to prove in the minors.

For now, they better be on the team next year, because if they're not, then we get to talk about fun things like service time manipulation. But we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. For now, he doesn't get a kind grade for prospect promotions.

Waiver claims: D

I'll throw this in here too since it's been a big talking point. We did an article about this recently as well.

Short story: Tyler Holton has been a heck of a find. Other than that? Harris' waiver claims have not brought anything positive to the organization. If you want the long version of this story, here's a link to that article.

This all goes back to one of Harris' key buzz phrases from his introductory press conference: calculated risk. Where have we seen any of that? So far, it looks like Harris is afraid to take any risks at all.

Calling up a big-name prospect would count as a calcuated risk. Making a big trade, or trading a prospect for a big league player would be a calculated risk. Signing a free agent of any kind is a calculated risk. We've seen very little of this.

This is the one thing we really want to see from Scott Harris moving forward. Take some risks — any risks. There's no risk involved in claiming a fringe-big leaguer on waivers. Do something impactful. Even if it doesn't work, you can at least say you tried.

Final grade: C-

Sure, Rome wasn't built in a day. Scott Harris wasn't going to turn the Tigers around overnight. But the lack of effort is what really frustrates us.

I started a new day job a few months back. I sure wish I could get a free pass my first 90 days, let alone my first year.

A C- feels just about right, as you can flunk your way through a test and still pull a passing grade. That's essentially what Harris has done his first year in office.

This is a massive offseason for Scott Harris and the Detroit Tigers. He needs to prove himself. We need to see substantial changes to this team. The American League Central is ripe for the taking. The Twins are going to win this division this season with a win total in the mid 80s. There is a huge opportunity here.

Another offseason like last year, and we'll start to get into some bad, bad territory.