Tigers Name Brad Ausmus Manager
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Mike McGinnis/Getty Images(DETROIT) — Brad Ausmus will take over for the retired Jim Leyland next season. The Tigers introduced the 44-year-old former catcher with no managerial experience on Sunday.
Ausmus will take over a team that has won the AL Central three years in a row.
“This is a winning franchise,” Ausmus said. “I think I should be held to that standard as well.”
Ausmus played in the MLB from 1993-2010 and managed Israel’s team for the World Baseball Classic and knows the expectations that Leyland left.
“I’ve got to be me,” Ausmus said. “Jim Leyland — great, Hall of Fame manager. I’m not going to be Jim Leyland. I would never make an attempt to be Jim Leyland. I’m going to be who I am.”
Ausmus got the job over hitting coach Lloyd McClendon, Padres bench coach Rick Renteria, and Dodgers third base coach Tim Wallach.
“Anybody you hire has some risk attached to it,” general manager Dave Dombrowski said. “Even a veteran manager that you bring in with a new club, where they are in their life, there’s risk attached to that.”
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