Detroit Tigers: Examining General Manager Al Avila’s failures
By Jeff Olson
The last few years have been rough for Detroit Tigers fans. Ever since Al Avila took over as general manager in 2015, we have all embraced the idea of a rebuild with the hope of seasons yet to come.
However, seasons have come and gone, and it feels like we are no closer to ending this rebuild than when it started. It is to the point now to question where we must take a good hard look at Avila and evaluate the job he has done.
After spending some time doing this, the results were not pretty. In short, he has failed in every way a general manager can fail. Here is what I mean.
The Detroit Tigers Record leaves Al Avila to blame.
In the grand scheme of things, it’s a general manager’s job to build a winning team. I’m sure that I don’t have to tell you that this hasn’t been the case in Detroit since Avila took over.
As I am writing this, the Tigers have won just 41% of their games in Avila’s tenure. I’m no mathematician, but that averages out to 66.4 wins a full season.
Keep in mind that Avila inherited a winning franchise. The Tigers had been to the playoffs four straight seasons from 2011 to 2014, including a trip to the World Series, before taking over in the middle of 2015.
To be entirely fair to Avila, I think most could see that the window was closing on that group, and a rebuild was coming. However, many of those players were still there in 2016, which was the only winning season under Avila’s leadership.
These players who helped him win in 2016 also made for valuable trade assets. This aspect of Avila’s job has also not been great.