Detroit Tigers hire Chicago Blackhawks executive Jeff Greenberg as general manager
The Detroit Tigers have found a general manager.
President of baseball operations Scott Harris, who has led the Tigers without a GM for 12 months, hired Jeff Greenberg — an associate GM with the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks — as his GM in Detroit. The Tigers announced Greenberg's hire Thursday morning.
Greenberg, 37, spent the past 16 months with the Blackhawks. He previously spent 11 seasons, from 2012-22, with the Chicago Cubs. Harris and Greenberg spent many years working together with the Cubs and climbing the ranks in the front office under Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer.
"I'm thrilled to add an executive of Jeff's quality to our baseball operations leadership team," Harris said Thursday in a 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."
Greenberg will serve as second-in-command and report to Harris. Greenberg has front office experience as the Cubs' pro scouting director, baseball operations director and assistant GM. He is known for his intelligence, interpersonal skills and ability to build trust.
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Greenberg started his front office career with the Cubs as a baseball operations intern in 2012, the same year Harris got his start as the director of baseball operations. Within three years, Greenberg became assistant to the GM.
In January 2018, the Cubs promoted Harris to assistant GM and Greenberg to director of baseball operations. Greenberg received his promotion to assistant GM in November 2020.
The Blackhawks hired Greenberg in April 2022, where he oversaw the strategic systems and processes in hockey operations. He was responsible for the immense growth of the Blackhawks' analytics department over his 16-month tenure.
"It's an extraordinary honor to take on this role with one of the most historic franchises in Major League Baseball," Greenberg said Thursday in a statement. "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 consistent 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 offseason and longer-term plans to make that our reality."
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Before joining the Cubs, Greenberg worked as an intern with the Pittsburgh Pirates (2006, 2008), Arizona Diamondbacks (2010) and MLB in the commissioner's office (2009-11). He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2008 and Columbia Law School in 2011.
The Tigers hired Harris as president of baseball operations on Sept. 19, 2022, replacing fired GM Al Avila. A media event for Greenberg's introduction is scheduled for 2 p.m. Tuesday at Comerica Park.
"We're excited to welcome Jeff, his wife, Erin, and their sons, Leo and Sam, to the Tigers family," Harris said.
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers name Jeff Greenberg as new general manager
