Firing Al Avila end of an era for Detroit Tigers

For years, Al Avila has been a key part of the Detroit Tigers front office. He had spent 22 years with the organization after his time with the Marlins and Pirates, initially serving as their assistant general manager and vice president. When he took over for Dave Dombrowski in August 2015, Avila became the first Cuban born general manager in MLB history.

That time has now come to an end. The Tigers announced that Avila has been let go, having been sacrificed due to their ongoing issues and disappointing performance this year.

Time for a change for Detroit Tigers

It is easy to look at Avila’s tenure as a disappointment, especially as they only had one winning season during his time in charge and that came in 2016. However, he inherited a team that had also begun the rebuilding process during the previous year, making that success more of an aberration.

As such, it was understandable when the Tigers were a disaster from 2017 through 2020. Avila was working to restock their depleted farm system, something he did quickly. The likes of Matt Manning, Spencer Torkelson, Riley Greene, and Casey Mize, amongst others, came into the system during his time.

And it appeared as though the Tigers were making progress. A 77-85 record led Avila to declare the rebuild over and kick off a spending spree that included Javier Baez and Eduardo Rodriguez. However, an incredible run of injuries on the pitching side, as well as the entire lineup going through a dreadful slump all season, led to their disappointing 43-68 record.

Avila cannot be blamed for all of those issues. It is not his fault that the pitching staff imploded with injuries or that Rodriguez went AWOL for a while. He is not the one swinging that bat, or in Baez’s case, not doing so. However, he constructed this roster, making their disappointment an indictment of his ability to construct a winning team. Avila may be able to get the prospects, but ownership had enough questions on whether or not he could make the moves needed to take a team to the next level where they took action.

The Detroit Tigers have moved on from Al Avila. While their struggles this year are not entirely his fault, it was time for a change to take place.