Brad Ausmus out as manager of Detroit Tigers

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 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 was 312-325 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. Detroit has been shedding payroll this year, trading stars Justin Verlander, Justin Upton and J.D. Martinez, and the Tigers are assured of no better than a fourth-place finish in their division.

“Al and I have become very good friends over the four years I was here, so it was a little emotional when he told me he wasn't going to bring me back,” Ausmus said. “Quite frankly, I told him I fully understood, and I told him, if he had walked in and offered me a contract, I probably wouldn't have come back, because I think this team, this organization is starting over. They need a new voice.”

Ausmus took over for Jim Leyland before the 2014 season, inheriting a star-laden roster, but one that was starting to show the effects of age.