Detroit Tigers: 4 Things a New Manager Must Bring

Jul 4, 2015; Detroit, MI, USA; Servicemen line the infield before the game between the Detroit Tigers and the Toronto Blue Jays at Comerica Park. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

We have been convinced through back channel leaking from the Detroit Tigers’ front office, coupled with disappointing results on the field, that the Brad Ausmus management era at Comerica Park will end shortly after the final out of the Tigers’ 2015 season in 10 days.

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General Manager Al Avila and the Tigers’ brass will have to go to work and find the right man for this job, something Ausmus was not when former GM Dave Dombrowski hired him prior to the 2014 season.

It is not that Ausmus might not be a good manager one day, it is just that he had never (aside from a brief stint with Team Israel in the most recent World Baseball Classic) managed at any level. Ausmus may one day be able to “think 2 to 3 moves ahead” as was sold to us fans to calm our concerns of a rookie manager taking the reigns of a championship-caliber team, but its clear that won’t happen here.

He often tried too hard to follow the “manager guidebook,” and did not respond to situations which require thinking outside the box, something veteran managers often excel with.

Make no mistake, not everything that happened on Ausmus’ watch was his fault. Dombrowski failed to improve the bullpen and then put stop-gap measures in place to make up for the loss of Max Scherzer. The result was a pitching staff that would have been awful no matter if the manager was Brad Ausmus or Tony LaRussa.

Still, the Tigers cannot afford to give Ausmus the benefit of the doubt, they must move on, but this team is an entirely different team now than it was when Ausmus came aboard.

Whichever manager takes the reigns of this team for 2016 and beyond, he must bring change to a fractured Detroit Tigers’ clubhouse.

Here are four things that need to happen for the next manager to lead this franchise back to where it needs to be.

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