Tigers Exercise Option On Avila
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
CBS DETROIT - The Detroit Tigers announced Monday they picked up the $5.4 million option on catcher Alex Avila.
Selected as a Gold Glove finalist this season, Avila turned in a .218 batting average - the lowest of his career - and an on-base percentage of .359. Avila has spent his entire career with the Tigers, who drafted him in the fifth round in 2008.
Avila was selected as an All-Star in 2011, his best offensive season. That year he finished with a batting average of .295 and 19 home runs.
The 27-year-old catcher has struggled with concussions in recent seasons, getting hit in the mask by foul tips or backswings on a more regular basis, it seems, than others at his position. Avila said after the season he was not concerned enough about the concussions - three documented ones in his career - that he would consider stepping away from baseball.
"All I've ever known is playing this game," Avila said. "I've always thought, even when I was a kid, that I'd play until someone says I can't anymore, whether it's because I get too old or I physically can't do it, so as long as I still feel that I can and that I'm okay that I can, then I will.
"It's something that I've thought about because of the information we have now about concussions," Avila added, "but at the same time I've always felt that I've been well looked-after between our trainers and our doctors. Any time that I've always come back from it, I've always felt extremely comfortable that I was 100 percent and ready to go."
