News: Detroit Tigers hire Jeff Greenberg as GM

After a whole calendar year on the job, Scott Harris has finally hired a general manager for the Detroit Tigers.

The Tigers announced this morning that Jeff Greenberg will be the team's next GM under Harris. He will be the 20th GM in team history.

Greenberg previously worked with Harris in the Cubs' organization, where he was an assistant GM under Theo Epstein. He also served as Director of Pro Scouting and Baseball Operations, Director of Baseball Operations and Assistant to the General Manager. He spent a total of 11 seasons with the Cubs.

Here's what Scott Harris had to say about the hire, per a press release:

"“I’m thrilled to add an executive of Jeff’s quality to our baseball operations leadership team. Throughout this search, it was important for me to find someone who can fit seamlessly into the culture we’re building here. I also wanted to bring in someone with a fresh perspective and new ideas that could challenge us on a daily basis and make us all better as we strive towards our goal of bringing postseason baseball back to Detroit. We’re excited to welcome Jeff, his wife, Erin, and their sons, Leo and Sam to the Tigers family.”"

Scott Harris

Greenberg was recently an associate GM for the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League. While he was there, he oversaw the strategic systems and processes in hockey operations. He worked across all functions of hockey operations, including scouting, development, coaching and operations to establish and optimize a modern, continually evolving approach, this according to an article by MLB.com's Jason Beck.

Here's what Greenberg had to say about joining the Tigers organization:

"“It’s an extraordinary honor to take on this role with one of the most historic franchises in Major League Baseball. Throughout my conversations with Scott, Chris Ilitch and the rest of the team with the Tigers, it became clear that this organization is headed in a great direction with an incredible culture of development and innovation that I’m excited to be part of. Another constant message in those conversations was that Tigers fans want to see winning baseball deep into October. I’m excited to get to work with our front office on off-season and longer-term plans to make that our reality.”"

Jeff Greenberg

It's not much a surprise that Harris would hire someone he worked with before to be his GM. They obviously share some of the same mindsets. Both are very analytically driven.

Greenberg's background in pro scouting is a welcome addition, since that's an area the Tigers still really struggle in. Hopefully he can help improve the team in that area.

The Tigers front office is finally filled out. It'll be interesting to see if things changes at all now that Harris has a GM by his side.