After a season spent evaluating themselves from the top down, the Tigers announced several changes to their front office Tuesday. The overarching aim, in the words of Al Avila, is to become a "more progressive organization."
Sam Menzin and Jay Sartori were both promoted to VP and assistant GM, taking over for David Chadd who was shifted into a player development role. Menzin, 31, spent the past four seasons as the Tigers' director of baseball operations, playing a key role in contract negotiations and roster construction. Sartori, 42, built the club's analytics department from scratch starting in 2016.
"The bigger announcement," said Avila, is that VP of player development Dave Littlefield has been moved into the scouting department, opening the door for the Tigers to upgrade their development system this winter. Kenny Graham, the organization's director of player development, is taking over on an interim basis for the 61-year-old Littlefield, who had held the position since 2015.
"We're looking for new leadership at the minor league level," Avila said, noting the Tigers have already begun contacting clubs for permission to interview potential candidates.
With the Tigers' youth movement in full swing, player development is essential. By reshaping that department, Avila said "we're looking to be a more progressive organization."
"We've been a very traditional organization as far as our way of teaching, and that will stay. We will not lose our old-school ways, but we want to be a little more progressive and start using more technology, more science," he said. "We want to start being able to write up plans for our pitching and our hitting across the board, starting from the major league level all the way down."
This is something A.J. Hinch talked about when he was hired, establishing an identity for the Tigers by teaching the same tenets throughout the organization. Hinch worked in player development before he was ever a manager. He's more than just the manager of the big-league club in Detroit. Avila said Hinch "has a tremendous influence over the organization" and has been influential in the shift toward a more progressive front office.
"That's one of the reasons that I hired him, because of what he brings to the table," said Avila. "Not too different than some other managers in the past where it's not just managing the big-league club, but being involved in all aspects of the organization. Obviously (managing the team) takes a lot of time, but yeah, he does have some thoughts and influence over some systems that we might want to implement," Avila said.
Hinch said Tuesday the aim is to "sync up everything in player development and the major leagues."
"That is really the lifeblood of what we're doing here. Whether it's philosophy, fundamentals or what we preach, we are one big group. That group has to be really good for us to be really good up here. We can't discount the work that those guys do (in player development). When prospects come through the system and advance to the big leagues, we pay more attention to them from a coverage standpoint. But the work is done by the group behind us that's building the case for these players to be big leaguers.
"A player development system, to me, is truly the backbone of an organization. I'm a little biased because I used to be in player development, but it's nearly impossible to win at this level without a good system."
