Recap: How the front office rating works
This is one in a series of assessments of the performances of front offices for the 2024 season. Each front office is given a score based on the total Wins Above Average of the players they either traded for, signed via free agency or extension, or promoted from their farm system, since the conclusion of the 2023 post-season.
A front office’s score also includes the total Wins Above Average of players traded away or lost to free agency since the end of the 2023 post-season. The front offices are being presented in order of their total value from No. 30 (worst) all the way to No. 1 (best).
These ratings do not necessarily reflect the final standings. Front offices are measured based only on the talent they acquired or lost during the past 12 months. Players on multi-year contracts, or already under team control, don’t count toward this rating.
No. 24, Detroit Tigers: Scott Harris, President of Baseball Operations, -5.3
In 2024, the Tigers played a postseason game for the first time in a decade. That makes it sound like this rating doesn’t give second-year front office chief Harris proper credit.
The data says otherwise. Most of the success the Tigers were destined to have this past season was baked in before Harris began to work on this particular iteration of the Tigers.
The Tigers rostered eight players in 2024 who scored at least +1.0 Wins Above Average. But here’s the thing: six of those eight — Kerry Carpenter, Riley Greene, Parker Meadows, Matt Vierling, Tyler Holton, and AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal — were already under team control for 2024 prior to the end of the 2023 season.
Overall, the Tigers carried forward 24 players under team control prior to 2024, and those 24 totaled +8.2 games of impact on the 2024 season. None of their production counts toward Harris’ rating. So what did Harris do to help Detroit’s 2024 fortunes that he couldn’t have done by taking a lengthy nap?
He traded for, promoted, extended, signed or re-signed 24 players who contributed value to the major league roster. But those 24 proved to be a net liability, cumulatively costing Detroit -7.6 games in the standings.
Think Kenta Maeda, a free agent signee who went 3-7 with a 6.09 ERA in 29 appearances. Or think Gio Urshela, another offseason free agent who hit. 243 with a .619 OPS before the Tigers unloaded him via DFA. Urshela was worth -1.4 WAA while with Detroit, and when he proceeded to actually play well for the Braves, his departure debited Harris’s score by another -0.5.
Five most impactful Harris moves in 2023-24
Transaction | Net Impact (Wins Above Average) |
|---|---|
Signed free agent Kenta Maeda | -2.7 |
Signed free agent Jack Flaherty | +1.4 |
Signed free agent Gio Urshela | -1.4 |
Promoted Justin Henry Malloy | -1.2 |
Sold Tyler Nevin to Baltimore | +1.1 |
Harris’ moves since the end of the 2023 postseason impacted 42 major leaguers — a relatively low number — and they split almost down the middle: 21 positive for the Tigers, 20 negative and one neutral.
The most positively consequential thing Harris did all season was sign veteran free agent Jack Flaherty to supplement Tarik Skubal in the rotation. Flaherty produced his best three months in a few years, going 7-5 with a 2.95 ERA in 18 starts before being shuffled off to Los Angeles in what retrospectively looks like a short-sighted move.
Would Flaherty’s presence have helped Detroit turn the tables on Cleveland — and perhaps beyond — in October? It's anyone's guess.
We do know this: of 15 players added to the Tiger roster who produced more than a half game of impact, Flaherty was one of only three whose impact was positive. The other two were promoted rookie pitchers Brant Hurter (+0.9) and Sean Gunther (+0.7).
Previous Rankings
26. Oakland Athletics, David Forst general manager, -6.8.
24. Detroit Tigers, Scott Harris president of baseball operations, -5.3.
Next: 23. Pittsburgh Pirates, Ben Cherington, general manager, -2.2