Detroit Tigers: Finding Avila’s Batting Average as GM

As the year draws to a close, the Detroit Tigers are climbing back into respectability. Let’s see how Al Avila has done so far in his time as general manager.

One of our fellow sites, Reviewing the Brew, recently did an article on how Brewers GM David Stearns has done as a GM and translated his performance into a batting average. I thought it would be a good idea to do the same for the Detroit Tigers Executive VP of Baseball Ops & General Manager Al Avila.

Why go with this idea? Well, I believe there are two types of Tigers fans. Ones who like what Al Avila has done, and others who have nothing but dislike for every move he has made. While one of our contributors Michael expressed his disappointment for not making a move on the non-tender deadline, it is his right to express what several fans are feeling.

On the other hand, we have to consider budget constraints, and if you notice last year on the signings of Jonathon Schoop and C.J Cron and the callups of Tarik Skubal, Casey Mize, and Isaac Paredes, things can happen very quickly, as we discussed on the podcast on Thursday.

Since Al Avila took over in early August of 2015, a lot has changed. The team went from spending money and trading prospects to stay competitive under Dave Dombrowski to rebuilding through the draft, upgrading their analytics department, and more recently, signing one-year deals to plug holes in the lineup.

So, how are we going to do this? As outlined by the Reviewing the Brew, we are going look at every waiver claim, free-agent signing, and trade Al Avila has made since he was named the Tigers GM. We won’t be able to cover the 2020-21 offseason, of course, and the draft is a different beast that deserves its own articles.

We will classify each transaction as Hit, a Miss, or a Draw. With a Draw, neither side of the trade came away with anything of value.

With that, let’s get started.