The Fall of the Detroit Tigers
The downhill spiral begins with Al Avila.
By De’Angelo Alexander
The Detroit Tigers have made many mistakes in the past which have led to the way they have been playing lately. This all could start with their general manager, Al Avila.
Avila has a deep history when it comes to baseball. He started his career as an assistant baseball coach at St. Thomas University, where he attended college. He stayed there and got promoted to head coach until he was hired as a scout for the then Florida Marlins in 1992. Avila quickly moved up positions and landed himself a job as the assistant general manager for the Marlins. He was then moved to the Pittsburgh Pirates as a special assistant to the general manager before the Detroit Tigers named Avila our assistant general manager and vice president in 2002. In 2015, he was named the Tigers’ general manager.
Comerica Park on May 28, 2021. Photo by Dominick Sokotoff/The Michigan Daily
It’s not a coincidence all the teams Avila was a part of were not very good. Throughout the time Avila was a part of the Marlins, they were known for being a bad team. When he then moved to Pittsburgh, they were not very good either. They had a losing 72-89 record. He was then moved to the Tigers which performed well before he became GM.
From 2012-2014 the Tigers went to the playoffs and dominated. They went to the World Series once, the American League Championship Series and the divisional series the next year. They were World Series contenders throughout those years.
In 2015, Avila was brought to the front office as the Tigers’ general manager. That’s when the team started to go downhill. The Tigers have not been back to the playoffs since Avila was brought in as a general manager.
The Detroit Tigers play the New York Yankees May 28, 2021. Photo by Dominick Sokotoff/The Michigan Daily
J.D. Martinez, Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, David Price, Prince Fielder and many more were in their prime when they were playing on the Tigers. Yet all these players were traded to other teams. They were strong hitters and fielders. Miguel Cabrera, who is still on the team, was a Triple Crown winner due to his strong hitting and amazing fielding.
Meanwhile, Scherzer, Price and Verlander were all traded to teams they led to the World Series. This raises the question: Why would the Tigers let go all these amazing players?
The Detroit Tigers play the New York Yankees May 28, 2021. Photo by Dominick Sokotoff/The Michigan Daily
Among the critics of Avila’s record is Derick Hutchinson, a senior web producer for ClickOnDetroit who covers local sports. “Avila said that it’s time for the Tigers’ rebuild to start trending upward. Fans need to see evidence of that to believe things will change,” he says.
We have yet to see any proof that Avila is doing what is right for the Tigers. One of the reasons all of those trades were made was to help bring in money so that we could get players that were even better, but Avila did not do that. After those trades, the Tigers got even worse. We have yet to make the playoffs and have a winning record since 2015. That is a sickening stat to have as a Tigers fan.
Al Avila has made many mistakes in his career. He has brought the Tigers down to a team that has not made the playoffs nor had a winning record in over five years. He has to make changes to our roster for the Tigers to have a chance at a winning record. The amount of money the team got for all the great players traded should get us even better players to build around.
The Detroit Tigers play the Cleveland Indians on May 27, 2021. The Tigers lost 5-2. Photo by Dominick Sokotoff/The Michigan Daily
Baseball is a team sport, but if the Tigers have two star players, it would be very easy to build around them with role players.
“Right now, free agency is the Tigers’ best friend,” Detroit native Raymond Rahsit says. They should use that to their advantage and get the best players possible to bring back the Tigers that Detroit knows and loves.
