DEGREES OF EXPERTISE

/ totallytigersblog

by Holly Horning

With just a little over a year of observation, it’s become apparent that the Detroit Tigers have completely changed how they operate from a business perspective.  The Colt Keith contract is just the latest example.

Part of the reason lies in the backgrounds of the Tigers’ PoBO, Scott Harris and GM Jeff Greenberg.  They are part of the sweeping changes that have come to professional sports, esp. baseball.

Gone are the days when top baseball executives came from the game, scouted, managed or coached.  Today, almost every single President and GM has a degree from an elite college with majors that are directly applicable to the sport – psychology, business, sports economics, finance, etc. Almost none of them played baseball outside of college.

This applies to both Harris and Greenberg, however they also belong to an even higher level of baseball executives.

They have advanced degrees as well.  Greenberg has a law degree and Harris has an MBA.  A perfect match of both fields that helps a team make bigger and smarter decisions.

They are among the very few in MLB who possess those double degrees.

Who would have thought the Tigers would be leading the way?

Best of all, it’s paying off.

Gone are the days when the Tigers threw big bucks at ageing players for what they did in the past by signing them to long-term expensive contracts.  IF they ever do this again, it will be because of desperation, a sense of urgency and an immediate need that cannot be filled on-house.

Miguel Cabrera’s contract was owner-fueled and belonging to a much more complicated set of circumstances than those offered to Victor Martinez, Jordan Zimmermann and Javier Baez.  In all cases, contracts were offered despite the statistical red flags that offered proof that their skills were on a downward trend.

And despite all those years of winning, those contracts offered by Mike Ilitch, Dave Dombrowski and Al Avila had the Tigers operating in the red for over a decade.

This strategy simply didn’t make for good business acumen and was not a sustainable strategy.  And we saw it first-hand during a particularly nasty and lengthy tear down necessitated by ageing players and a drop in performance.

The Keith contract shows us that the Tigers are not going to continue this pattern but will instead invest in players who appear to be on the upswing and will create long-term value.

Sure, there are risks involved and some of these signings will fail.  But at least any loss will be minimal and won’t set the team back significantly.

The Tigers now are being proactive, instead of reactive.

Harris did inherit some bad contracts.  Eduardo Rodriguez (for the character and behavior issues), Miguel Cabrera and Javier Baez.

The Baez contract is the only 1 that remains.

And in his case, as well those involving ERod’s and Andrew Chafin, the former GM willingly handed out player opt-outs.  Every single one came back to bite the Tigers.

If you notice now, the Tigers don’t give those out anymore.  They only offer team opt-outs as they did with Mark Canha, Colt Keith, Carson Kelly and Casey Mize.

And Harris has added something new in offering those contracts.  A specific incentive plan.  Pay for play.

A golden carrot dangled out there to reward players for reaching certain performance levels.  It keeps them motivated throughout the year.

Remember the phrase “He’s playing for his next contract” to describe how a player suddenly turned it on in his last year because he needed another contract for the next season?

This new strategy of loading contracts with yearly incentives appears to be a method to keep a player motivated each and every year.

The simple fact is that Tigers are now operating from a position of power.  No more giving in to players during contract negotiations.

We saw Scott Harris refuse to re-negotiate Eduardo Rodriguez’s contract when he came calling before opting out.

We saw Harris refuse to take Andrew Chafin back after the 2022 season when he opted out and couldn’t get a new contract.  This year, he’s back – while also publicly admitting that he made a mistake.

And recently, the message sent not once, but twice to Casey Mize.  A powerful message over a measly $25K and then the symbolic $10K that Mize had wanted in arbitration.

Message received by Mize.  He got a new highly-incentivized contract for the 2024 season that will reward him in 2025 if he performs well.  Oh, and it’s also a team option just in case.

Harris simply knows how to negotiate.  And he does it well.  It’s all part of the tool kit he developed in business school.

It will be interesting to learn more about how Jeff Greenberg’s legal background comes into play.  But right now, he’s new – and silently lurking somewhere in Harris’ shadow.

Last but not least, there’s the contract extension given to A. J. Hinch.  Done 2 years before his current agreement is set to expire.  Most teams only extend managers a full year before their contracts end.

Details are not released but the Tigers have stated that Hinch will be in Detroit “for a very long time.”

This tells us 3 things.  That A. J. is their long-term guy. 

That they are very happy with him.

That he is part of their long-range vision of building a sustainable winner.

And you better believe that his contract is also incentive-laden.

Isn’t that just the best way to motivate and get the best performances out of everyone?

Don’t see your comment? Comments are limited to a maximum of 3 sentences.
Please make sure to check out the other rules for posting under the link
at the top of the page in order for your comments to be published.

What did you miss on our Twitter feed yesterday?

  • Another ranking list is out. How many Tigers made it?

Why should you follow Totally Tigers https://twitter.com/totallytigersbb on Twitter?

  • We tweet out breaking news before it’s published in the sports pages. The best news from the best sources.
  • Want more than 1 Totally Tigers fix every day? How about throughout the day?

28 thoughts on “DEGREES OF EXPERTISE”

  1. If a pitcher has a contract incentive for a certain # of innings pitched, and Hinch pulls him a few times not because of poor performance but because of analytics, and the pitcher misses his innings mark by say less than 10 do the Tigers open themselves to a grievance suit? Same for a hitter with a possible plate appearances incentive. Do we know what incentives the contracts include?

    Liked by 1 person

  3. I too wonder how instrumental Jeff Greenberg has been in structuring these incredible team controlled contracts. You see Harris all over the incentive laden contracts to players who want to improve and be here. I think that Harris’s refusal to cater to opt-outs and putting Mize in his place tells many this FO is confident and sharp negotiators.

    Liked by 2 people

  4. A good business format but baseball is played on the field. There’s a lot of factors to take into consideration. Our front office are great business people but are not battlefield tested.

    Liked by 4 people

  5. The new front office has a better grasp of organizational finances. It will be interesting to see what they do in pursuit of or retaining true star players. Most winning teams have multiple star players and they don’t come cheap, and they have options to go somewhere else if they don’t get what they want.

    Liked by 4 people

  6. I’d be careful not to diss the baseball acumen of this FO led by Harris. I would add, they are battle tested and have been very involved in results on the field.

    Liked by 2 people

  7. I agree with the tenor of Holly’s post but also agree with chipper1962 and golions1 that full throated praise should be reserved for a front office that delivers a team that wins on the field. It must be acknowledged H & G are getting credit for the talent delivered by Avila’s draft picks and hires. I wanted Al fired, but concede that Keith was a great pick at #5 and that Jobe #1 is looking pretty darn good these days.

    Liked by 4 people

    • Hi, All – I’ll play devil’s advocate here to create some good discussions. Where should the credit go for talent – to the GM or to the system that developed that talent? 

      Does a player come into an organization pre-formed or is he made within the system?

      How much credit should a GM get for drafting at or near the top when every other team would have drafted that same player? 

      Should a GM be evaluated more on who they drafted further down in the order where decisions are harder to make and require more thought?

      Let the discussions begin! – Holly

      Liked by 5 people

      • For me it’s the GM who develops his choice. AA may have had successful picks but they stalled until the right developmental system was in place. Also a good GM will find jewels in latter rounds.

        Liked by 3 people

        • In the past the Tigers were not very good at selecting hidden jewels in the later rounds and no one knows how many they found and messed up with a poor development system. Random probability would dictate that occasionally they’d find one they couldn’t mess up.

          Liked by 3 people

    • Avila also signed JD Martinez off waivers after Houston failed to develop him. Skubal and Carpenter were taken in later rounds as well. Avila deserves credit for his good decisions and blame for his poor ones.

      Liked by 3 people

      • Hi, gl1 – Agree that credit should be given where credit is due. But it’s also important that the full story be known as well. JD hired 2 hitting coaches to help him stay in the majors. He got claimed off waivers because he was long-time friends with Alex Avila (they grew up together) and called him to ask if he’d talk to his dad about claiming him. 

        As for Carpenter, he was close to being released by the Tigers but he hired Richard Schenck (Aaron Judge’s hitting coach) to help him with hitting. He widely credits George Lombard in helping him defensively. Both JD and Kerry were very proactive about advancing their careers and hiring specialists. – Holly

        Liked by 4 people

        • Holly, I don’t think I’ve seen you credit Avila with anything or ever given him the benefit of the doubt. I agree that when you weigh the good with the bad he clearly needed to go, but I don’t believe there is any balance or fairness here when it comes to our former GM.

          Liked by 3 people

          • Hi, gl1 – I’ve given him credit for signing Skubal, addressing the bullpen and for starting an analytics dept. But I’ve also done my research on decisions attributed to him that many take as face value without investigating. 

            But let’s face it, he was a horrible GM and it’s not just my opinion. Remember the blog when I met another GM and he rolled his eyes and laughed when I mentioned Avila? Al inherited almost all of his jobs and rode on his father’s coattails. He was handed the Tigers’ position not because of his skills but because Mr. I saw him like a son. Mike didn’t even interview anyone else for the job.

            There’s a reason he remains unemployed for 2 years now and no team even wants to interview him. If someone has so very little to go on, one can’t write positive things or point out his accomplishments, can they? – Holly

            Liked by 4 people

  9. I’ve been saying for years these contracts need to be incentive driven. The problem is choosing the right incentives for each player. You can’t expect a power hitter to LF to hit to right and move the runners if his incentive is home runs.

    Liked by 2 people

  10. The degrees are nice (I have a bachelors in Business Admin believe it or not), but in my experience the real learning takes place once you start working; and the quality of the learning is really determined by who you work (apprentice) with. Also with that, there needs to be Some experiential knowledge of the particular industry/business on the management team. Looks like Harris & Company are starting off in pretty good shape. 

    Liked by 3 people

    • I agree. Harris (and perhaps his underlings) are doing good work but much remains to be proven on the field and in the standing They have greatly improved the player development infrastructure, but to not credit the preceding failed regime of not hitting on some but too few smart draft choices (Carpenter, Keith, Skubal) is unfair.

      Liked by 4 people

      • Hi, All – For the record, Carpenter was dropping in the system and he went out on his own and hired independent coaches, to whom he publicly recognized. Keith was also dropping in the system until Garko’s coaches got ahold of him and developed a specialized program to get him back on track. The question to ask is if these players were really indeed very talented when drafted but the system failed them or whether it was the new system that saved them and made them better players. – Holly

        Liked by 3 people

        • The one time I remember seeing Garko play was several years ago in Columbus Ohio, triple A for somebody at the time and He was on the visiting team for the Guard- uh – Indians AAA club ( I hope Mrs Bandito doesn’t read that tomorrow) and managed to get himself thrown out of the game for some reason that I can’t remember now. Upon exiting the field, he gave everyone in the stadium the old “One Fingered Toledo Salute” and I have held him in the highest regard ever since. 😍

          Liked by 3 people

  11. Success often comes from taking action. I’m most impressed that Mr. Harris has a clear vision on how to move forward and certainly the proof will be measured by banners on the wall, but a willingness to take bold action generally wins. After building a solid organization, don’t underestimate the power of attracting star talent to seal the deal and put up banners.

    Liked by 1 person

  12. From the Moderators – Please be reminded of the rules for posting. In order to facilitate discussions, readers may post an independent comment (the lead comment of any thread) just once but you may respond to multiple other readers by hitting the reply link directly underneath their comment to create a thread of discussion. Please remember that all comments, except for Sundays, are limited to 3 sentences in order to enhance discussions.

    Like

  13. It will be fun to watch how Mr. Harris deals with one of Scott Boris’ players. So far, Mr. Harris handles the young, arbitration eligible players. I’d like to see this technique work on a star veteran with, or without that players agent being Boris.

    Like

    • In all fairness to CI, revisit Holly’s blogs re: the state of the franchise and why CI kept AA in position until he realized AA’s assessment that the rebuild was over was short-sighted. And he realized after pouring a quarter of a billion dollars in that AA was drowning in his own mismanagement.

      Liked by 1 person

  15. H & G may have, as Holly astutely points out, the right degrees and experience and SH has certainly upgraded the Tiger organization and operations, but ultimately both will be judged by the fans by the product they put on the field. Conversely, AA’s reign as GM can hardly be defended by the product he put on the field or by the organization he built.

    Liked by 3 people

Comments are closed.