Samuelsen: The Case For Brad Ausmus
By: Jamie Samuelsen
@jamiesamuelsen
Brad Ausmus will not be the AL Manager of the Year. He probably won't even earn a vote. And if the Tigers collapse over the last two weeks of the season and fail to make the postseason, there will be plenty of people calling for him to be replaced.
He's not perfect. He's made mistakes, as all managers do.
But as we sit here and bemoan another frustrating Tigers season that looks very much like it will continue on to the postseason for the fourth straight year, let's at least give the rookie manager a break.
When Ausmus was hired last November, he was handed a team that came two games from the World Series and had one directive for 2014 – win it all. Or else.
Ausmus inherited Miguel Cabrera, a two-time MVP and three time batting champ. He got Justin Verlander who was coming off a down year but was just two years removed from dominating baseball and winning the AL MVP and Cy Young Award. He got defending Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer and defending AL ERA champ Anibal Sanchez. And if that wasn't enough, he also had Victor Martinez, the ultimate baseball professional who was as hot as any hitter in baseball over the second half of 2013. The deck was stacked. Ausmus had no excuses. The Tigers had to win.
But let's just recount for a second what happened to this team from that point forward.
- They dealt Prince Fielder to the Rangers for Ian Kinsler. This was an immensely popular trade but it did take away 25 homers and 106 RBIs from the lineup.
- They traded the reliable Doug Fister to Washington in exchange for three players who had little to no impact on the team this year. Fister will most likely start Game 1 of the NLDS for the Nats and would be in the NL Cy Young conversation if Clayton Kershaw weren't living on this planet.
- Their everyday shortstop (Jose Iglesias), everyday set-up man (Bruce Rondon) and platoon left-fielder (Andy Dirks) all suffered what turned out to be season ending injuries in Spring Training.
- The Tigers and Scherzer had a rather messy contract negotiation that ended with the Tigers letting it be known that Scherzer had turned down a very generous offer. Not exactly the best way to build clubhouse chemistry.
- Their 10-million dollar a year closer Joe Nathan had a wobbly season, complaining of a dead arm and making a crude gesture to the Tigers fans in a game in August.
- They tried multiple options at shortstop (remember Alex Gonzalez?) before finally settling on Eugenio Suarez. But a cold bat and a balky glove have caused Ausmus to rely on Andrew Romine down the stretch. And while he's played well, he doesn't exactly evoke memories of Alan Trammell.
- Perhaps most importantly, the two highest paid players on the team (Cabrera and Verlander) have performed far below expectations. Cabrera's average and RBIs are still high, but his homer total (23) is about twenty below where he was in each of his MVP seasons.
- Austin Jackson was turning into a reliable leadoff man during July when he was traded on deadline day as part of the deal that brought David Price to Detroit. Price has been up and down; his true value might come next month. But as we look back on that trade, it weakened the Tigers everyday lineup and didn't specifically address any glaring need.
It hasn't all been bad for Ausmus. He's gotten career years from Rick Porcello, J.D. Martinez and Victor Martinez. Nick Castellanos may get some third place votes for AL Rookie of the Year. And Joba Chamberlain performed much better than expected for about the first two-thirds of the season. Rajai Davis has been solid, especially when you consider he was brought in to be nothing more than a platoon player.
Plenty of managers would love to trade places with Ausmus and be able to pencil in Cabrera, Martinez and Martinez in the middle of the order and trot out Scherzer, Price and Porcello three out of every five days.
But few contending teams have dealt with as much adversity as Ausmus has in his first year and stayed in contention. This is a team without a logical #2 hitter and a team that's basically patching together catcher, shortstop and center field on a nightly basis. And when Cabrera looked like he was going to play injured for the end of the season as he did last year, Ausmus found a way to rest him and DH him to get him better. He looks fresher and more nimble now than he did a month ago.
Managers are judged on wins and losses and that is truer in Detroit in 2014 than perhaps any city in baseball. Don't feel sorry for Ausmus. He certainly doesn't deserve that. But don't ignore the numerous hurdles that have risen up and challenged him this season. He hasn't passed all the tests. But he's gotten to this point. And with a strong rotation, a healthy bullpen and an improving Cabrera, he may just have the Tigers in position to pass the biggest test of them all.
