The front office and coaching overhaul continues as Scott Harris and his front office reshape both groups this offseason. Evan Petzold of the Free Press reported on Tuesday that back in September, the Detroit Tigers moved their director of international operations, Tom Moore, into a new senior advisor to the department position. In his place as the head of their international operations, overseeing both scouting and player development, Scott Harris hired Brad Ciolek from the Washington Nationals.
The 39-year-old Ciolek worked for the New York Mets and the Baltimore Orioles before joing the Nationals front office. He holds a master’s degree in computer information services from Colorado State as well as a bachelor’s in business administration from Seton Hall. So he came into the game with a strong data analytics background, and has since worked his way up as an amateur scout and then into supervisory roles in scouting departments.
He got his start with the Mets, but spent a decade from 2013-2023 in Baltimore in various scouting roles, including two years as director of amateur scouting and two years as director of draft operations. For the past two seasons, he’s served as senior director of amateur scouting for the Nationals.
So he has a lot of experience in the realm of scouting and player development, but has never worked in international operations before. Now he’ll be tasked with improving the Tigers talent acquisition in Latin America, east Asia, and beyond.
The Tigers international department has only recently started to see some successes after over a decade between finding Willy Adames and Eugenio Suarez and any real homegrown talent coming for their international free agents. Players like Joe Jimeñez, Wenceel Pérez, and Keider Montero have given rays of hope that things are finally starting to turn around. Top 100 catching/slugging prospect Josue Briceño is currently the Tigers top ranked international free agent signing, though teenaged Dominican outfielder Cris Rodriguez and right-hander Kelvis Salcedo are rapidly climbing the ranks of the Tigers farm system despite being several years away from getting to the upper minors and close to Detroit.
In other front office news, Eric Nieto, who has served as assistant director of amateur scouting for the last eight years under multiple scouting directors, was also let go by the Tigers. Nieto survived the transition to Mark Conner’s tenure as director of amateur scouting, and the club has put together plenty of good young talent over three drafts in the Harris era.
In Nieto’s place, the Tigers have hired Theo Hooper as assistant director of amateur scouting to work under Conner and vice-president and assistant manager, Rob Metzler, who oversees scouting operations at all levels. Hooper comes to Detroit after six years with the Texas Rangers, working in analytics, and then advance scouting and game planning.
Cody Stavenhagen reported on Tuesday that the Tigers are also about to hire first base coach Anthony Sanders, as well as hitting coach Cody Asche from the Baltimore Orioles. Tigers first base coach Anthony Iapoce has already left the organization, along with hitting coach Keith Beauregard. Presumably, Sanders will take over at first base from Iapoce, while Asche will take Beauregard’s role, working as a hitting coach alongside Michael Brdar and Lance Zawadski, both of whom appear to be staying put.
