Report: Tigers may fire manager Brad Ausmus at end of season

The Detroit Tigers could fire manager Brad Ausmus at the end of the season.

The Detroit Tigers are currently evaluating manager Brad Ausmus and will reach a decision on his future at the end of the season, the club announced.

The Detroit Free Press reported Friday that Ausmus would not manage the Tigers in 2016, but later in the day Tigers general manager Al Avila stressed that no move would be made until the completion of the season.

“We are evaluating all personnel,” Avila said in a statement. “I reconfirmed with Mr. Illitch and Manager Brad Ausmus this morning that these evaluations are on-going and decisions in any of these areas will be made by the end of the season.”

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According to the report by the Free Press, Tigers owner Mike Ilitch had made the decision to fire Ausmus. Former president and general manager Dave Dombrowski had fought for Ausmus’s job, preventing him from being fired much earlier in the season. Dombrowski was released from his contract with the Tigers in early August and was hired as president of baseball operations for the Red Sox shortly after.

In two years as manager in Detroit, Ausmus has a 154–148 record. He led the Tigers to the 2014 ALDS, where they were swept in three games by the Orioles. Ausmus had one year remaining on the contract he signed with the team in 2013.

Despite the Tigers’ success last season with Ausmus at the helm, he has been blamed by many for their disappointing performance this season after preseason predictions projected them to be contenders. The Tigers are in last place in the AL Central with a 64–76 record, the second-worst record in the league after losing 15 of their last 20 games. They will play their final game of the season on Oct. 4 against the White Sox.

Ausmus told the Free Press he did not have a comment on the report.​

- Erin Flynn