After over a year, the Detroit Tigers have found their new general manager.
Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris announced on Thursday that Jeff Greenberg, a former assistant GM with the Chicago Cubs and associate GM with the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks, has been hired as the team's new general manager.
"I'm thrilled to add an executive of Jeff's quality to our baseball operations leadership team," Harris said in a team statement. "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."
Greenberg, 37, began his career in baseball as a minor league video intern in the early 2010s. In his time with the Cubs, he held multiple job titles, including director of pro scouting and baseball operations, director of baseball operations, and assistant to the general manager. He spent his last three years with the Cubs as assistant GM.
"It's an extraordinary honor to take on this role with one of the most historic franchises in Major League Baseball," Greenberg said. "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."
The Tigers haven't had a general manager in over a year, Greenberg is technically replacing Al Avila, who was GM of the Tigers from 2015 to 2022. Avila was fired in Aug. 2022 and the position had remained vacant until Thursday.
According to MLB.com, Greenberg's work with the Blackhawks as associate GM spanned numerous areas, including scouting, development, coaching, and operations.
Harris said the Tigers wanted someone with a fresh perspective, which might be what you get from a guy who left a decade-long career in baseball to spend 16 months working in hockey. The team hopes that fresh perspective helps them get their act together so they can be competitive and make the playoffs (or at least become relevant again). Since the Tigers haven't been to the playoffs since 2015, Greenberg has his work cut out for him.
