Detroit Tigers hire Scott Harris as next President of Baseball Operations

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Breaking news as the Detroit Tigers hire their next president of baseball operations, Scott Harris.

The Detroit Tigers will hire San Francisco Giants GM Scott Harris as their next president of baseball operations. Jeff Passan of ESPN.com first reported the story.

Facts about the new Detroit Tigers President of Baseball Operations

Harris comes with a strong list of qualifications. He worked for the Cubs from 2012 to 2019, under Theo Epstein and later with Jed Hoyer in the Cubs Baseball Operations Department. Harris’s educational background stands out. He has a MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. He also graduated from UCLA in 2009 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and studied at the London School of Economics in 2007.

Harris, per a report, spoke to the Mets about their vacant baseball operations position, but later withdrew. He is also bilingual, with Spanish as his second language.

His belief in having organizational depth

As far as some insight on how he handles injuries and team depth, here’s a tidbit from 2021 in the Athletic.

I think it’s a combination of factors. One, our players have been very nimble in that they’ve been able to perform in different spots. We’ve asked players to play different positions to cover for holes on our team that come about due to injury. And we have a coaching staff that is preparing all of our players at a very high level each day so that they’re prepared to play different roles on our team that opened up due to injuries.

And then I think the third reason is we have a deep belief that improving our organizational depth at every turn is paramount to building a healthy organization. Farhan and I share the belief that we should be in constant pursuit of depth upgrades. (Laughs) We’re often texting late into the night about some, you know, Double-A reliever who is undervalued by their organization and (if there is) a way to acquire him.

I think we obsess over those moves because there’s a deep belief that those are the types of players that, at best, can become a Mike Yastrzemski, or at worst, can factor into the big-league mix and help buoy our team through periods of injury, uncertainty or underperformance.

For fans who believe in a having a good farm system, this is a good sign of potential things to come. More news to come.

Rogelio Castillo

Detroit Tigers beat reporter.

Mandatory Credit: Lon Horwedel-USA TODAY Sports