Detroit Tigers: Top Ten Catchers in Franchise History

Brad Ausmus

Detroit Tigers: 1996, 1999-2000

Aumus didn’t spend a lot of time as a ballplayer in the Motor City, but his two best seasons were both with Detroit. That’s good enough to land him at No. 8 on our countdown.

Ausmus spent his first three big league seasons in San Diego before coming to Detroit in a midseason trade in 1996. The Tigers traded John Flaherty and Chris Gomez to San Diego in exchange for Ausmus, Russ Spear and Andujar Cedeno.

Ausmus hit .248 with four home runs and three steals in 75 games down the stretch for the Tigers. Then, they decided they’d seen enough and shipped him to the Astros in a blockbuster. The Tigers traded Ausmus, Jose Lima, Trever Miller, C.J. Nitkowski and Daryle Ward to Houston in exchange for Doug Brocail, Brian Hunter, Todd Jones, Orlando Miller and cash.

Ausmus would get very familiar with big trades.

Ausmus spent the next two years in Houston, posting a 4.0 bWAR and hitting .268. That was enough for the Tigers to apparently have traders remorse. They traded Paul Bako, Dean Crow, Brian Powell, Mark Persails and Carlos Villalobos to the Astros in order to get Aumus and C.J. Nitkowski back.

As weird as that is, the trade worked for the Tigers. Ausmus broke out in a big way, making his first and only All-Star game in 1999. He hit .275 with nine home runs and 12 steals and posted a 3.4 bWAR. His 2000 season was similar, with an identical 3.4 bWAR and a .266 average.

If you don’t know the history here this may surprise you, but the Tigers once again decided to trade Brad Ausmus after the 2000 season. And, I swear I’m not making this up, they traded him back to the Astros. This time the Tigers sent Ausmus and Doug Brocail (who they originally got from the Astros in the first Ausmus trade) and in return they received Roger Cedeno, Chris Holt and Mitch Meluskey.

That would mercifully be the last time Ausmus would play for the Tigers, or be traded. He played 10 more big league seasons, winning three Gold Glove Awards and hitting .241.

Overall, Ausmus was a very solid big league catcher who was known more for his defense than his hitting. In his three years in Detroit, he hit .266/.354/.382 with a 90 OPS+ and a 7.6 bWAR.

If this was a list of the greatest Tigers managers of all-time, Ausmus would not even come close to cracking this list. A list of catchers however has Ausmus creeping his way into the top ten.