Detroit Tigers: Scott Harris continuing to provide clarity on future plans

Detroit Tigers Scott Harris continues to talk of his three pillars.

Since his hiring, Detroit Tigers President of Baseball Operations, Scott Harris, has been big on being transparent with his intentions and direction. As the Tigers are working through the offseason, he has continued to provide the media with meaningful quotes as to what the Tigers are aiming to do.

Looking back on the day Harris was introduced as the next front-office leader for the Detroit Tigers, he spoke of three pillars. He spoke on them and their importance for his plans for the Tigers organization moving forward.

Now, with a few months under his belt and Winter Meetings in full swing out west in San Diego, Harris continues to revisit these fundamentals. It's good to see him sticking to what he said. In his latest media availability, Harris spoke about the importance of developing young talent.

Here's the quote as written up by Evan Woodberry of MLive that he shared on Twitter.

On the surface, Harris says that the Tigers will "earmark" at-bats and innings for the organization's younger players. On a deeper level, it's Harris's way of sticking to his pillars he spoke about on his first day with the organization.

Allowing the younger players to find their way and crack spots in the lineup allows the Tigers to do a couple of things. They are able to breed and develop talent from within while also aiming to compete. It's important not to shelter these prospects in the minors for too long, rather opting to give these guys chances to show their stuff.

An example of this that comes to mind might be Ryan Kreidler. With a horrible free agent market for third basemen, Kreidler may have a bigger number of at-bats headed his way in 2023 while the team brings in another cheap stopgap option to platoon alongside him.

Harris's comments speak to his first two pillars. He wants to be able to acquire, develop, and retain young players. Earmarking at-bats makes this possible. Players feel like they can work through their development and be rewarded with the opportunity to strut their stuff in the big leagues.

The second pillar speaks of a culture of development, or the idea that the Tigers brand of baseball is going to be revolutionized. What that means is that Harris wants players to come to Detroit for the Tigers' new brand, which is going to be focused on development and competition.

Harris wants players to view Detroit as a place they can come to work through development and find the missing piece of the puzzle to make said player elite. Harris giving prospects the opportunity to shine in the big leagues allows them to further their development, speaking to that new "Tigers brand" and Tigers culture he's aiming to develop.

With plenty of time to go in this off-season, Harris has a chance to keep executing on his three pillars, and it will be interesting to see how things develop. He's been transparent in his media availability and continues to say the right things. Now is Harris's chance to keep executing and get the wheels rolling.