Tigers’ Manager Jim Leyland Steps Down
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Robert Rogers/MLB Photos via Getty Images(DETROIT) — After eight seasons, Jim Leyland will not return as manager of the Detroit Tigers in 2014.
The decision to retire from managing came from Leyland, and Leyland alone. He informed General Manager Dom Dombrowski back in September that regardless of how the team finished, he would not return next season.
“The fuel was getting low and that’s the way it went,” Leyland said Monday.
“I’m not totally retiring today, I just don’t want to be in the dugout anymore,” he added.
Sixty-eight-year-old Leyland took over a struggling Tigers franchise prior to the 2006 season and helped revitalize the franchise. Detroit hadn’t finished with a winning record for 12 seasons prior to Leyland’s arrival. During his time with the Tigers, the team never finished with a losing record a single time. Leyland took the team to the postseason four times, but never won a World Series with the team.
In 22 big league seasons as a manager with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Florida Marlins, Colorado Rockies, and the Tigers, Leyland went 1,769-1,728. He even won a World Series with the Marlins back in 1997.
Leyland is expected to join the Tigers’ organization in a yet to be determined front office position.
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