Detroit Tigers general manager Jeff Greenberg said he will not be pursuing the Detroit Red Wings' open general manager position.
Greenberg, who had been reportedly linked to the opening for weeks, is voluntarily removing his name from the pool of candidates, according to a statement on Monday, Sept. 7.
"This was his decision," a release from the Tigers said. "He has communicated it to them directly. He has tremendous respect and admiration for the organization and was honored to be considered for the opportunity, but he is committed to the Tigers and what this group is building."
The Red Wings have been searching for a new GM since the team announced Steve Yzerman would not return in that role.
That was on July 15.
The Red Wings start training camp
on Sept. 17.
Greenberg was an interesting name as a possibility, given his previous work in hockey (Chicago Blackhawks associate GM in 2022-23) and his connection to Detroit as a high-ranking executive in the Tigers' front office. But now we know Greenberg will not be the choice.
Greenberg grew up in Pittsburgh, where he acquired a taste for hockey as the NHL's Penguins peaked during his childhood. His father, Chuck Greenberg, was a sports industry attorney who was instrumental in the deal that kept the Penguins in Pittsburgh under the ownership of franchise legend Mario Lemieux in 1999, as Jeff was in his teens.
"I was born [in 1985] the year after the Penguins drafted Mario Lemieux, so I was part of that wave in Pittsburgh that came up with Lemieux and those really good Penguins teams in the early 90s," Jeff Greenberg told the Free Press in 2024. "I was pretty spoiled. They won two [Stanley] Cups. I fell in love with the game, and I fell in love with baseball at the same time."
Greenberg stayed involved with both sports growing up, with hockey having a slight edge.
"I fell in love with both sports and started playing hockey and baseball when I was 5," he said in 2024. "I wasn't great at either, but I was probably a little better on the hockey side. I went to Penn and played on the club team there. I obviously had a really unique opportunity to jump into hockey on the professional side after 16-17 years of working in baseball. It was an incredible experience. I learned a ton and really enjoyed working with the Blackhawks."
Greenberg joined the Tigers in 2023, a year after they hired Scott Harris as president of baseball operations; Greenberg and Harris worked together in the Chicago Cubs' front office.
"I put a lot of work into figuring out how I could help Scott and the Tigers," Greenberg told the Free Press in 2024. "I really enjoyed those conversations in that process. I was really focused on what I was doing on the hockey side. I very easily could have seen myself staying, just given some of the things we were doing there. I was really proud of the foundational stuff we were able to build at the Blackhawks. I really enjoyed working with [general manager] Kyle Davidson and the group with the Blackhawks. We were going through a rebuilding process there, and that wasn't easy, but we did some pretty exciting things in the time I was there."
The Blackhawks were in a deep rebuild during Greenberg's time in Chicago, finishing next to last in the NHL in the 2022-23 season and winning the draft lottery to select generational star Connor Bedard.
Free Press sports writer Evan Petzold contributed to this story.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Tigers' Jeff Greenberg takes himself out of running to be Red Wings GM
