Penn alumnus Jeff Greenberg hired as new Detroit Tigers general manager

Another day, another Penn alumnus’ Wikipedia page to update.

On Sept. 21, Penn alumnus Jeff Greenberg was named the new general manager of the MLB’s Detroit Tigers. Greenberg – son of former Texas Rangers owner Chuck Greenberg – hails from South Hills of Pittsburgh. He enrolled at Penn in the fall of 2004 and graduated in 2008. He then got his J.D. from Columbia Law School right after undergrad in 2011.

During his time at Penn, Greenberg was a member of Penn’s ice hockey team. Having been demoted from a varsity sport due to budget cuts in the 1970s, Greenberg’s team played at the club level. In his freshman year, they lost in the Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Hockey conference tournament’s quarterfinal but secured a win in the national tournament.

During his senior year, Penn hockey notably honored Marlin Newcomer — a dedicated local Philadelphian that attended nearly every game — on his 75th birthday. As captain at the time, Greenberg took a picture with Newcomer, which Newcomer fondly recalled to The Daily Pennsylvanian. 

Prior to his hiring with the Detroit Tigers, Greenberg acted as associate general manager of the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks since April 2022. He ushered in a new era of analytics for the team, as the Blackhawks had previously outsourced their entire analytics operation.

“From an analytical standpoint, he tried to use terms for us to understand and not make us feel like it’s not a complicated thing,” Rod Braceful, former Chicago Blackhawks scout, said in an interview with The Detroit News. “When he talked to us in scouting meetings, if someone said, ‘I don’t understand analytics or I’m not an analytical guy,’ he would say you understand analytics more than you think.’”

Notably, Greenberg was part of the administration that selected rising NHL superstar and Calder Memorial Trophy frontrunner Connor Bedard with the first overall pick in the NHL draft this past summer.

If Greenberg has any luck, he will find the same generational talent for the Tigers. His hiring is a long time coming. The Tigers had been without a general manager since August 2022, when the organization fired Al Avila after offseason free agency signings did not land the team in the postseason. The Tigers — without any major moves on Greenberg’s end — could miss the postseason again in 2024, which would mark a 10-year drought.

But Greenberg is no stranger to the world of the MLB.

He got his start with two summer internships — in true Penn student fashion — with his hometown Pittsburgh Pirates as an undergraduate. He then landed a job in baseball operations with the Chicago Cubs, where his primary responsibilities were evaluating players for trades and free agent acquisitions, and preparing scouting material. He eventually rose through the team to become an assistant general manager.

Greenberg worked with Cubs for 11 years before he switched sports — but not cities — to join the Blackhawks. But during Greenberg's tenure at Wrigley Field, he was a major part in the organization's rebuild, which secured the Cubs a World Series victory in 2016 and ended their historic championship drought that lasted 108 years.

“I’m a baseball guy at heart,” Greenberg said at his introductory press conference when asked why he wanted to return to the MLB. “I worked in baseball almost 17 years. I have deep connections in the game, deep connections to the game. Going to hockey was an incredible opportunity to tackle a new set of challenges. I think it made me a better leader, made me think through problems in a way that I think can help us here. But at the end of the day, the opportunity to come here, to partner with Scott and our leadership group, to continue to invest in that foundation and really continue to build off that momentum we’ve talked about – that was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.”

While with the Cubs, Greenberg worked closely with Scott Harris, who went on to become the next president of the Tigers and was one of the leaders in the organization that picked Greenberg.

“Our culture has a strength to be a real strength for us moving forward. I wasn’t comfortable sacrificing our culture for any other attribute in this process and I found someone who fits our culture very well,” Harris said. “I also found someone who has the intellect and creativity to come up with the next great idea. But also someone who is versatile enough that can go from the brainstorming stage all the way through execution.”

For now, only time will tell if Greenberg will live up to these expectations.