The Detroit Tigers announced Thursday the addition of Ryan Garko as the new vice president of player development. He accepted the position previously held by Dave Littlefield, who was reassigned in late August as part of progressive front office moves.
General manager Al Avila said the vice president of player development role was identified as the “second-most important (job) to the GM position as we move forward into the future as far as leading with a vision, managing people and players and setting goals for our future.”
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Garko, 40, has spent the past two seasons with the Los Angeles Angels. He served as their coaching assistant and instant replay coordinator, focusing on the use of analytics in the clubhouse and dugout and for game-planning strategies on offense.
“One of my biggest focuses and one of the things I’m most excited about with this role is coach development and teaching our coaches,” Garko said Thursday. “Analytics, we can’t be scared of it. It’s not a scary word. It’s information that helps us make decisions.
“We’ll sit down in spring training, once everybody is in, and go over what we value, why we value it, how we use it, whether it’s daily, monthly, yearly to evaluate and help players get better in the day-to-day of trying to help improve our players.”
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Garko was the head coach at the University of Pacific from 2018-19 and managed Double-A Tulsa — an affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers — for the 2016 and 2017 seasons, working under Andrew Friedman, Farhan Zaidi and Gabe Kapler.
His coaching career began at Stanford in 2013 as an assistant coach.
“We went through the process very similar to the process of looking for a field manager,” Avila said. “I had all my guys use their contacts, do their homework and make recommendations to build a list. We built a pretty big list. … If you’re successful in player development, it could lead to two things: One could lead to a major-league job as a field manager, it could lead to a job in the front office as a general manager.”
Like Tigers manager AJ Hinch, Garko played baseball at Stanford, from 2000-03. He won the Johnny Bench Award, given to the top catcher in college, before Cleveland drafted him in the third round in 2003.
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While Garko didn’t know Hinch personally, he worked with pitching coach Chris Fetter during their time together with the Dodgers. (Fetter was Los Angeles’ pitching coordinator from 2016-17 when Garko managed the Double-A Tulsa.)
“The biggest thing, if you really want to dig in on coaching, on (player development), is that we’re always looking to grow,” said Garko, who has already transitioned from the Angels to the Tigers. “That’s how Chris and I feel about the pitching. We want to built it and keep getting better and better as new information comes out.”
Garko competed in MLB for six seasons with Cleveland (2005-09), San Francisco Giants (2009) and Texas Rangers (2010). He finished his career with a .275 batting average, 55 home runs, 250 RBIs, 125 walks and 272 strikeouts over 463 gams. The first baseman and catcher also played for the Samsung Lions in the Korean Baseball Organization in 2011.
“When I finished playing and got back into baseball, I always said my dream job would be a director of player development for the right organization and the right people,” Garko said. He later added: “Most importantly, it was hearing Al’s vision. Talking with Al and AJ about their vision, that’s why I took the job.”
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In late August, the Tigers promoted Sam Menzin and Jay Sartori to vice president/general manager titles. The moves were made to ignite a greater push to integrate new-age analytics into the team’s makeup.
“We’re in the second phase of deploying more technologies and adding more personnel, particularly in player development of how we want to teach,” Avila said. “Going into the season, there will be added technology and people that can interpret the data that comes from that technology, and then how to implement it to coach the coaches to coach the players. It’s a very interesting process. It’ll be our next phase.”
[ Tigers promote Sam Menzin, Jay Sartori; Dave Littlefield transitions to new role ]
The Tigers recently informed 11 player development staffers that they won’t return for 2022: Rafael Martinez (Latin American player development director), AJ Sager (pitching coordinator), Joe DePastino (catching coordinator), Jose Valentin (infield coordinator), Mark Johnson (Double-A Erie pitching coach), Willie Blair (High-A West Michigan pitching coach), Bill Springman (West Michigan hitting coach), Gary Cathcart (Complex League 2 manager), Santiago Garrido (Complex League 2 pitching coach), Ryan Minor (Complex League 1 manager and Andres Tarazona (strength and conditioning coach).
Avila said Garko will decide how to replace them.
“One of the things that we want to change in our system is the rover role where that person went into the field, was there for five days, worked with the players and then they left,” Avila said. “And then what happens after that? Well, bring in guys that can actually coach the coaches to coach the players, and then give them the freedom to excel at what they know best. It’s going to be more progressive in how things are changing in the game.”
After Littlefield was reassigned, Kenny Graham handled the VP of player development duties on an interim basis. Graham has been the Tigers’ director of player development since November 2019 with an emphasis on hitting development and strategies.
Although his role is unclear, Avila said Graham is expected to stay with the organization.
“It’s going to be up to Ryan and Kenny how they want to move forward with that, whether Ryan wants him to get involved in other areas or stay strictly (working with) the hitters,” Avila said. “We did tell Kenny that we wanted him in the organization, and he wants to stay.”
Evan Petzold is a sports reporter at the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold. Read more on the Detroit Tigers and sign up for our Tigers newsletter.