The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Ausmus won’t return as Tigers manager
Detroit says it won’t extend his expiring contract for 2018.
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. General manager 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 in the Detroit dugout before Friday night’s game. “The organization, the club, got to a point where we needed change on the field. We needed to change the roster, and we started trading players, so the conclusion is: OK, you know what? Let’s just take a whole brand new road and opening up to new things.”
Ausmus, 48, was 312-325 (.490) heading into Friday’s game against Minnesota. His tenure included an AL Central title in his first season, but the Tigers have not made the postseason since.
Mets: Ace Noah Syndergaard will make a one-inning start tonight against the Nationals in his first major league game in nearly five months. The right-hander, 25, has been out since April 30 with a partially torn lat muscle on his right side. He was 1-2 with a 3.29 ERA in five starts this season when he was hurt. Former Mets ace Matt Harvey will take over in the second inning tonight. Harvey is 1-3 with a 13.19 ERA in four starts since missing more than two months with a shoulder injury.
Reds: Catcher Tucker Barnhart agreed to a $16 million, four-year contract. Barnhart is hitting .272 with six homers and 42 RBIs. He has only one error and leads MLB catchers in fielding percentage.
Yankees: After speaking with the family of the young girl hit in the face by his foul ball, third baseman 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. “It should be up sooner than that.” Frazier spoke Thursday to the father of the girl struck by his 105 mph foul ball in Wednesday’s game at Yankee Stadium. The girl remains hospitalized. Frazier said her father told him she is “OK.”
Blue Jays: Outfielder Jose Bautista has struck out 160 times, breaking a tie with Jose Canseco (1988) and Kelly Johnson (2012) for the Blue Jays’ single-season record.
Brewers: Minor leaguer Julio Mendez, who suffered a cardiac event after being hit in the chest by a pitch Aug. 26 in Tempe, Ariz., was moved to a hospital in his home country of Venezuela at the request of his family. Brewers GM David Stearns said Mendez remains in critical but stable condition.
Noteworthy: Former Dodgers star Raul Mondesi was sentenced to eight years in prison after being convicted of embezzling $6.3 million during his term as mayor of his hometown in the Dominican Republic. The district court of San Cristobal, a town west of the capital Santo Domingo, also ordered Mondesi, 46, to pay a $1.3 million fine. Mondesi won the NL Rookie of the Year award in 1994. He retired from the majors in 2005 with .273 average and 271 homers in 13 seasons.
Women’s soccer: Hope Solo settled a grievance with U.S. Soccer over her suspension from the women’s national team following comments she made at the Rio Olympics. The 35-year-old goalkeeper was suspended for six months and her contract with the federation was terminated after she called the Swedish team “a bunch of cowards” following the U.S. team’s quarterfinal loss.
Women’s basketball: Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma weighed into Connecticut’s state budget battle, offering to go unpaid next year in response to criticism over high salaries at UConn. Auriemma has won 11 national titles.