Ausmus out after disappointing season
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 after four years with the club. General manager Al Avila said the team was not extending Ausmus’ contract.
“We didn’t win,” Avila said while announcing the move in the Detroit dugout before Friday’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 open 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 post-season 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.
Ausmus had little managerial experience when he took over, but the former major league catcher initially looked like exactly the type of young, fresh voice who could help the Tigers remain successful.
Detroit went 86-75 last year and nearly made the playoffs, and the Tigers kept the team largely intact, hoping they could contend again in 2017. But the Tigers weren’t even able to mount a serious challenge for a wild-card spot.
Now the Tigers face a rebuilding period.