PROMISE, POTENTIAL AND IMPRESSIONS

by Holly Horning

The first year of any new baseball regime is always the toughest for fans.

Sure, we’re always hopeful when disastrous GMs are shown the door and a new era is ushered in.

But we’re never handed a summary of how good or bad they will be as they step into their jobs.  We have to wait for things to unfold.  Slowly.  Bit by bit.

Fans are in a blind spot for the first year.  We really don’t know how things are going to work out.  We have to hunt and peck for those little moves that tell us what kind of a PoBO or GM he may be.

We add up all those little clues during the year and start to form some first impressions.  And when we get enough of them, we put them together and begin to assemble the new Front Office’s patterns and ways of operating.

Personally, I like what I see in Scott Harris so far.  God knows he was given an absolute dumpster fire of an organization to dig out of and had to spend some time steering the ship away from the rocks.  It’s going to take longer than a year for him to get fully up to speed given everything he’s had to address first.

But my impression of him is only partially formed.  I need to see another year as PoBO in which he moves from the reassessment phase into the re-imagine stage.

Given all of this, I can see how very differently this organization is being run now that the grown-ups are in charge.

And that’s what today’s blog is about.

What are the biggest differences we’re seeing in how this organization is now being operated?

Let’s start with Harris himself.  He is articulate and doesn’t pepper every sentence with “um” like his predecessor.  His comments are thoughtful and well-explained.  And you can hear his MBA background speaking as he carefully takes fans step-by-step from topic to concern to background to strategy to solution.

When he can’t speak about something, he tells us why.  But everything he says sounds logical.  You feel better hearing the rationale from him.

Compared to the former GM who was short on detail, injected his personal feelings into issues and was quick to excuse his lack of success by pinning the blame on someone else.  A pattern only matched by his incessant habit of spilling all the strategies that continually exposed the team and put him in a position of weakness.

Another big difference between the 2 regimes was how they decided on which players to sign.

Avila was almost always the first one out of the gate in signing free agents.  It’s often speculated it was because the Tigers couldn’t dig down deep enough in evaluating the true value of a player so they pursued those who were more well-known.  Jordan Zimmermann comes to mind.  So does Eduardo Rodriguez.

When they needed a shortstop, they went after the most obvious ones.  After Carlos Correa turned down their offer, attention automatically turned to Javier Baez.

In Javy, it was about signing a shortstop.  They didn’t look beyond that.  They weren’t concerned (or potentially didn’t see) about his #1 ranking as the player with MLB’s worst plate discipline.  They ignored his tendency to be aloof and rile the fans as he did when with the Cubs and Mets.

But with Harris and his crew, this Front Office digs down.  They have been signing players who check off all the boxes, not just a couple.  There is a method to their madness.

Take Mark Canha for example.  They signed him for his extraordinary ability to get on base to help solve the offensive problems.  They signed him for his ability to hit both LHP and RHP.  They signed him to balance his right arm with all the lefties in the outfield.

They signed him for his leadership skills and also for his veteran experience.

It was a thoughtful signing.  It was a signing based upon specific needs.

It was a signing that Al Avila would never have made.  Or considered.

Speaking of Canha, the new Tigers believe character and leadership are important factors in building a roster.  Harris speaks about it often.  It was part of Canha’s package.  Matthew Boyd returned to Detroit because of his leadership skills and mentoring of young pitchers.

Scott has talked extensively about the need to develop a clubhouse recipe.  The right mix of players.  The right mix of personalities.  The right mix of experience.  Because harmony and cohesiveness is important to winning.

He had a mantra of only wanting players to come to Detroit because they were “team first.”  And if they weren’t, they’d be gone.

Andrew Chafin, who had opted out, wanted to come back when he couldn’t get the contract he wanted.  Harris said “no.”

As we just learned yesterday, he treated Eduardo Rodriguez the same way.  The player who has shown fans repeatedly that he’s a “me first” guy ended up not getting much face time with Scott over the last weekend. 

It became seen as an attempt to get a better offer or something to use in his negotiations for a new contract.  Harris had previously stated that he was not open to contract discussions until Eduardo had made a decision about staying or leaving.

As it turns out, Harris refused to budge on the contract and made it clear to the media that it was ERod who made the decision to leave.  Not the Tigers.

In contrast, Avila signed Eduardo despite all the reports of him being difficult in Boston.  The Red Sox low-balled a new offer to him with the intent of pushing him out the door without leaving their fingerprints.

And Al signed Baez, too, despite seeing the friction he created with other players and fans.

Which players have been the hardest for the Tigers to handle this year?  Al’s free agent signings.  How you relate to others is an important quality that Avila discounted.

Now let’s turn to a particular need when building a roster.  The defensive and offensive profiles of players.

We don’t see evidence of the former regime trying to balance either.  Under Avila, the Tigers were one of the worst fielding teams, sitting at or near the bottom of the stats.  They gave up tons of runs because of their gloves.

Almost every player of those years sat in the negative DRS numbers.

Almost every player Harris has brought on board has a positive DRS.  The Tigers moved from near the bottom and are now ranked #13 in DRS.

In hitting, Detroit ranked at or near the bottom for most of Avila’s tenure.  He signed player after player who had horrible plate discipline, struck out too much and couldn’t get on base.

Could he have been focused solely on filling positions instead of filling them well?

They ranked #30 in almost every offensive category and now under Harris sit at #18.  It’s progress, but there’s still a long way to go.

Finally, another significant difference between the 2 Front Offices is how they addressed the growth of players’ skills.

Avila and his assistants left players alone in the off-season.  Improvement was up to the players.  One reason why the most proactive ones hired their own independent coaches.

The Tigers now do exit interviews for all players – both at the MLB and minor league levels.  Covering what worked, what didn’t and setting new goals.  Developing written programs for players to follow in the off-season and regular accountability with their coaches.

Torkelson has talked about what he’s doing this winter. No more stories about spending quality time with the puppy.  So has Jake Rogers, Parker Meadows, Casey Mize, Kerry Carpenter and many more.

Last year, A. J. Hinch tried to reach the enigma known as Javy Baez by spending a week with him.  It didn’t work so the Tigers have gone back to the drawing board instead of giving up.

This winter,  Baez has bought into a brand new off-season program.  The Tigers have given him a plan and he’s hired a new trainer.  Instead of returning home to Puerto Rico, he’s spending much of the winter in Lakeland.  And all the hitting coaches are on him like grass on dirt for the next 3+ months.

So how may we summarize the differences between the past and present Front Offices?

The former regime appeared to be superficial and rudimentary in their approach.  They never offered a detailed explanation of any move and we never got the sense that their technology and analytics resources were ever really used in the decision-making process.

Harris and all the new people appear much more thoughtful in crafting not just the roster, but the entire organization.  They consider many more factors and dig deeper to get the information.  It’s a multi-faceted approach that includes the tangibles and non-tangibles and goes well beyond the simple stat totals.

Considering this is Detroit, the differences between the two can be seen as an older basic car with few options compared to the latest model with all the options and newest toys.  The latter is much more likely to reach the finish line.  And the driver (Front Office) and the passengers (fans) will have much more fun.

And it will be interesting to see if new GM Jeff Greenberg has a lead foot.  I don’t think he’s going to ride the brake.

All of the differences between the former and current Front Offices show that this organization is improving, modernizing and moving forward.  But like anything that is worthwhile, it’s going to take time for those in charge to complete their mission.

But I think I will be enjoying this coming year a little more than last year.  There’s a little less mystery and hopefully, a little more movement.

Is there another difference between the past and current Front Offices that you see?  Tell us!

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