Detroit — While the rest of the baseball world awaits the start of the World Series, president of baseball operations Scott Harris was busy reshaping the Tigers’ front office and training staff.
Late Monday afternoon, according to sources close to the team, the Tigers and longtime front office executive David Chadd mutually agreed to part ways. Chadd, who has been with the organization since 2005 and was former general manager Al Avila’s right-hand man since 2015, had two years left on his contract.
According to sources, efforts to find a different role in the organization for Chadd were unsuccessful and Chadd opted to pursue other opportunities. No word if a financial settlement was reached.
Reached via text message, Chadd politely declined to comment. Harris has not been available to the local media since his introductory press conference.
Chadd, 56, spent the last 18 years with the Tigers after eight years as a scout and scouting director with the Miami Marlins and three years (from 2002-2004) as the Boston Red Sox scouting director. During his time as amateur scouting director in Detroit, the team drafted James McCann, Nick Castellanos, Drew Smyly, Rick Porcello, Andrew Miller and Corey Knebel.
Baseball America named Chadd the top scouting director for the decade of the 2000s.
On Aug. 7, 2015, he was promoted to assistant general manager.
Earlier in the day Monday, the Tigers opted not to renew the contracts of longtime trainer Kevin Rand and strength and conditioning coach Steve Chase. Also, head athletic trainer Doug Teter will not be with the big-league club next season, transitioning instead to a yet-to-be determined role at the club’s facility in Lakeland.
The moves were not unexpected given the rash of injuries the Tigers endured all through the 2022 season. Although Tigers manager AJ Hinch, speaking at his postseason press conference earlier this month, was quick to absolve the club’s training and medical staff of any direct blame for that.
But he also suggested the entire process needed to be reviewed and evaluated.
Rand had been with the organization since 2002. After serving as the Tigers’ head athletic trainer through 2017, he’d been bumped to the role of senior director of medical services working out of the team’s facility in Lakeland.
Kevin Rand, who has been with the organization since 2002, will not have his contract renewed. After serving as the Tigers’ head athletic trainer through 2017, he’d been bumped to the role of senior director of medical services working out of the team’s facility in Lakeland.
Teter had been the team’s head athletic trainer since 2017 and has been in the organization in a variety of roles since 1993.
Chase had been the strength and conditioning coach at the big-league level the last two seasons and had been with the Tigers for 16 years, previously working as minor-league strength and conditioning coach.
“I don’t think the injuries can be associated with the strengths and weaknesses of our medical department or strength department,” Hinch said. “It was a really rough year and those guys worked tirelessly. They were dealing with something every single day of the season.
“So we’re going to look at our processes. We’re going to look at our processes and see where we can get better and what we what we do well what we do below average and try to address all of that.”
Hinch intimated the system, the coordination between Detroit and Lakeland, needed to be upgraded.
“Lakeland became overwhelmed with humans,” Hinch said. “And quite honestly, I think it exposed that we could probably enhance that department. And I think it’s something that the organization needs to look into — both in size and strength of our of our overall program.
“But it needs to be linked completely together. How we how we handle our medical process has to be unilateral across the organization.”
It is unclear if the Tigers will be hiring a new head athletic trainer and strength coach at the big league level. Assistant trainers Chris McDonald and Matt Rankin are still on staff, as is assistant strength coach Matt Rosenhamer.
chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @cmccosky
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