Tigers don’t want Ausmus back for 2018

DETROIT — The rebuilding Detroit Tigers will start fresh next season with a new manager.

The Tigers announced Friday that Brad Ausmus will not return in 2018. GM Al Avila said the team was not extending Ausmus’ contract, meaning the manager’s four-year tenure will end when this season is over.

“We didn’t win,” Avila said while announcing the move before Friday night’s game. “The organization, the club, got to a point where we needed change on the field.”

Ausmus was 312-325 heading into Friday’s game against Minnesota. His tenure included an AL Central title in 2014, but the Tigers have not made the playoffs since.

MARLINS: As part of Miami’s ownership change, Jack McKeon is out.

The team’s 86-year-old special assistant to owner Jeffrey Loria, said Friday he was told he will not be retained by the new ownership.

INJURED FAN: After speaking with the family of the young girl hit in the face by his foul ball, the New York Yankees’ Todd Frazier said teams should move quickly to expand protective netting at major league ballparks.

“I think 2018, that’s too late,” Frazier said Friday.

Frazier spoke Thursday to the father of the girl struck by his 105 mph foul ball Wednesday against Minnesota at Yankee Stadium. The girl remains hospitalized. Frazier said her father told him she is “OK.”