Detroit Tigers: Al Avila reveals his two biggest regrets as Tigers GM
Former Detroit Tigers GM Al Avila has resurfaced, and has some regrets
The Detroit Tigers finally decided to cut the cord and fire Al Avila last season. It was a long time coming. It's been well-documented that he didn't do a very good during his tenure, so we'll spare the details.
We didn't hear from him for a while after his firing. He just kind of went into hiding, and it's hard to blame him for that. But recently, he made his first public appearance since he was relieved of his duties on Aug. 10, 2022.
This week, he appeared on the Foul Territory podcast with former MLB player Todd Frazier. He was asked about what moves he regrets the most as Tigers GM, and here's what he had to say:
If he could pick only two moves out of, well, many, that were bad during his tenure, the Austin Meadows and Justin Verlander trades are pretty good choices.
As Avila said, Meadows has hardly played for the Tigers due to a variety of reasons, most notably his struggles with mental health. We wish him nothing but the best in getting his head straight. He has been hanging around the team and has been seen celebrating with the team during walkoff wins, so that's a good sign.
Isaac Paredes, meanwhile, has flourished this season in Tampa. He has a 131 wRC+ and nine home runs for the first-place Rays. He's finally found some consistent power.
And then the Verlander trade...the less said about that, the better. Dozens of articles have been written about how lobsided that trade was. There's really no point in beating a dead horse.
Again, there are many bad trades that Avila made that he could have chosen, but the two he chose were pretty spot on. It's pretty interesting to see him talk about his own hiccups. In fact, it's pretty interesting to see him talk about this in the first place.