Former Tigers manager reportedly in the running as Astros' Dana Brown replacement

The four years Brad Ausmus spent as the Tigers' manager are ones that fans would prefer to forget.

His first year, 2014, went decently well despite the Tigers being swept in the ALDS — Detroit still finished first in the AL Central with most of the pieces that made the 2011-2013 teams so great — but the teardown began in 2015, when Dave Dombrowski was ousted from the front office.

It would be unfair to call 2015-2017 under Ausmus the worst of times, but they sure weren't fun. Those years saw the exits of Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander, just to name a few, and steep declines from most of the remaining players who had made the 2011-2013 Tigers so great.

It wasn't all Ausmus' fault, of course. The Tigers were in a rebuild under Al Avila, and Ausmus had to take what he could get, but he was still let go ahead of the 2018 season and has since jumped to three different organizations in various roles (special assistant-turned-manager with the Angels, bench coach with the Athletics and currently with the Yankees).

His next venture, per Chandler Rome of The Athletic, might be a front office job. It might be the front office job. Rome wrote that Ausmus could be the Astros' replacement for newly ousted Astros GM Dana Brown.

Former Tigers manager Brad Ausmus could be in line for Astros' GM job after Dana Brown was fired

A former player doesn't always make a good front office decision-maker. The most recent example of this is Buster Posey who, despite some experience as a member of the Giants' board of directors, is having a miserable first year at the helm in San Francisco. The Mariners' and Jerry Dipoto and Red Sox's Craig Breslow are, for the most part, heavily disliked by their fanbases (though it's rarer to find a GM or president of baseball operations who is loved).

However, Ausmus — still a close friend of Astros special advisor Jeff Bagwell — was reportedly the runner-up to Brown the last time Houston was looking for a new GM, and his forced exit could spark talks again. He could also be a candidate for Joe Espada's job, if the Astros also go looking for a new manager at the end of the year.

The Astros are still searching for the recipe that amounted to their late-2010s-to-early-2020s dynasty. Could Ausmus be the guy to get them there? We might soon see.

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