Avila: Decisions On Personnel, Including Ausmus, To Come By Season's End

By Ashley Scoby
@AshleyScoby

After reports surfaced Thursday night from WDIV that the Tigers were planning on firing manager Brad Ausmus at the end of the season, general manager Al Avila released a statement Friday saying no decision had been made.

"I have stated several times since becoming executive vice president of baseball operations and general manager that we are evaluating all personnel, and know that includes the players, the manager and his staff and minor league operations," the statement read. "In fact, I reconfirmed with Mr. Ilitch and manager Brad Ausmus this morning that these evaluations are on-going and decisions in any of these areas will be made by the end of the season."

The statement was hardly an expression of confidence for Ausmus, who went 90-72 in his first season at the helm, winning the division. It's been a step down this season, though, as the Tigers are currently in last place in the AL Central with a 64-76 record, a whopping 19.5 games behind the first-place Royals.

Detroit fired general manager Dave Dombrowski in early August, and unloaded several top players (David Price, Joakim Soria and Yoenis Cespedes) in pre-trade deadline moves.