Blackhawks' Jeff Greenberg Named Tigers GM; Reunited with DET President Scott Harris

The Detroit Tigers have found their new general manager.

The Tigers hired Chicago Blackhawks associated general manager Jeff Greenberg to replace Al Avila, whom they fired in August 2022.

ESPN's Jeff Passan noted Greenberg and Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris previously worked together with the Chicago Cubs.

"It's an extraordinary honor to take on this role with one of the most historic franchises in Major League Baseball," Greenberg said in a statement, via MLB.com. "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."

Avila's firing late last season came after the Tigers spent a total of $217 million in free agency to bring in Javier Báez (six years, $140 million) and Eduardo Rodríguez (five years, $77 million).

Adding Báez and Rodríguez to a young core that included Spencer Torkelson, Riley Greene, Casey Mize, Matt Manning and Tarik Skubal was supposed to elevate the Tigers back into playoff contention.

Instead, the 2022 team finished 66-96 and missed the postseason for the eighth consecutive year. Avila had been with the Tigers since April 2002 when he was hired as assistant general manager and vice president.

Greenberg was hired by the Blackhawks in April 2022 after spending 11 years with the Cubs. He was serving as the Cubs assistant general manager at the time he left to join the NHL club.

The Cubs hired Greenberg as a baseball operations intern in 2011 shortly after Theo Epstein took over as team president. He won a World Series with the organization in 2016 and worked his way up to become assistant GM.

Harris was originally hired by the Cubs in 2012 as director of baseball operations. He was promoted to assistant general manager in 2018 and was hired by the San Francisco Giants as their general manager in November 2019.

The Tigers named Harris their president of baseball operations in September 2022 after Avila was fired.

Even though Detroit is unlikely to make the playoffs this season, the team has made improvements over last year with a 71-81 record going into Thursday's game against the Oakland Athletics.