11:30am: The Tigers have formally announced the hiring of Gardenhire, noting that he has indeed signed a three-year contract with the club.
OCT. 20, 7:40am: The Tigers have scheduled a press conference for 1pm ET today to announce the hiring.
OCT. 19: Ron Gardenhire has agreed to a three-year deal to become the Tigers’ next manager, per Jon Morosi of MLB Network (Twitter link). The deal could be announced tomorrow; Detroit’s decision to tab the veteran skipper was first reported earlier today by Ken Rosenthal and Katie Strang of The Athletic (subscription required and recommended).
Detroit will install the widely respected 59-year-old in the dugout in place of Brad Ausmus, whom the club decided not to retain past the present season. Gardenhire previously managed the division-rival Twins and most recently served as the Diamondbacks’ bench coach. He also fought through a diagnosis of prostate cancer earlier this year, returning to help guide the Diamondbacks to a successful season.
At last check, Tigers GM Al Avila had cast a wide net in lining up options. While there was no prior indication that a decision was looming, Detroit obviously decided to go ahead with Gardenhire, perhaps due in some part to ongoing competition with other organizations. Gardenhire was also under consideration for the Red Sox job, though that is expected to go to Alex Cora.
After moving on from Ausmus, who was a rookie skipper when he signed on, the Tigers have indicated a clear preference for a candidate with prior time as a MLB manager. Gardenhire certainly checks that box. He spent thirteen years running things for the Twins, beginning in 2012. That tenure spanned quite a few good years, including a run of six postseason appearances in nine years, though the team’s performance fell off sharply in his final four campaigns.
Gardy ultimately delivered a 1,068-and-1,039 win/loss record during his time in Minnesota, which wrapped up after the 2014 campaign. He failed to guide the team into the World Series and only made it out of the divisional round once despite the run of regular season success.
In any event, postseason considerations likely won’t be much of a factor early in Gardenhire’s tenure with Detroit. The team is only just embarking upon a rebuilding effort that is likely to take several seasons to come to fruition, after all, placing it more in the situation that the Twins found themselves in back in 2011 — the first year of the four-season run of misery. Gardenhire, then, has his share of experience in bringing along younger players through a rebuilding stage. While he ultimately was cut loose in Minnesota, perhaps some of his efforts are beginning to bear fruit there.
It’ll be interesting to see how this relationship works out. Avila had suggested a need for a new approach from a new skipper, but evidently was not referring to a strong sabermetric predilection. Gardenhire brings a reputation as an old-school manager, after all. As Joe Posnanski wrote at the end of his tenure in Minnesota: “Gardy comes from the Tom Kelly school — he was the valedictorian of the Tom Kelly school — where managers grump and demand and instill and bunt too much and occasionally fall in love with limited but gritty players.” That said, Gardenhire is also said to carry a new “openness” to modern analytics after his year with the D-Backs, Morosi tweets. Avila and the Tigers are betting that approach will help foster the growth of a new core and ultimately guide the team back into contention.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
That’s One Domino. Three more remaining.
2 dominos
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/report-alex-cora-to-be-named-red-sox-manager-after-alcs/ar-AAtJRxV?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartanntp
Phillies so 3 and maybe 5 if Nats decided to let Baker go,Joe Girardi decides not to come back to Yankees.
Not back to Yankees. That team is young and talented with a stacked farm. You’re an idiot!
…and you sound like a 12 yr old.
Matt’s holding out on the real scoop here. The Mets were the first team in tue Gardenhire hunt. According to Matt Ron said, “they were the first team to make me an offer. They insulted me with a one year deal @ $800,000. Can you believe it? Wilpon and Sandy told me how they would throw in dinner every night–as long as the three of us could go to an early bird. I’ve never heard of such frugality.”
So who’s the second domino?? I’m on the mobile app so I can’t see whatever it is you linked to.
Alex Cora apparently will be announced Red Sox manager after the ALCS.
I hope and pray that you are correct. He seems like he has the potential to be very good.
The Mets are once again a day late or a dollar short.
So are the Sox
Yeah, a day late in not signing someone who apparently wasn’t even on their list. Don’t you ever get tired of posting negative garbage like this? I know people here are tired of reading it.
You mean you don’t like garbage trolls?
Hey Mr. Bill…hope you are recovering from your buddy Sluggo squeezing you. Time to learn who your friends are.
Goat–you sound like your namesake. Better than your previous identities so you can be in the closet about your favorite team,’huh?
You must be feeling good that your Metsies let Justin Turner slip through your fingers and become a free agent to sign with the Dodgers for $1 million for 1 year.
I know that it was your pride for such a smart organization that was expecting big years out of David Wright that it didn’t need any backup insurance. And calm down now–we know that your team simply wasn’t patient enough to let him develop. So no need to litter here, as your litter box is larger than a cat’s.
The Mets are $150 million short every year that Fred Wilpon steals from Mets fans.
Somewhere out there a headline will read “GardenHired!!!”
Well done!
As a Twins fan, I was using GardenFired since 2011.
Seems like a waste of a good manager until they decide which way they’re going.
In hiring Gardy, it’s obvious which way they’re going. They’re not going to do a total rebuild, which means they’re not trading Castellanos, Fulmer, Boyd or in the case of Kinsler, not until July. It’s good news for Tiger fans who want to watch a competitive MLB team instead of a bunch of AAA players like they had in 2003.
Yes they are doing a total rebuild, they will trade Kinsler this winter and there’s no point in pretending to be competitive when you aren’t going to make the playoffs. If they wanted to be competitive they wouldn’t have traded Upton or Verlander in the first place and even then, they’d just be stuck in the middle. The middle is the worst place to be in baseball.
So, when the Tigers go from the worst team in baseball to the middle they are actually going backwards?
Seriously, I’d much rather be where the Mariners and Rangers are than where the Tigers and Giants are.
It depends if that improvement is sustainable and if they have the resources (see: prospects) to add to their roster to build on that improvement. They don’t. At least not yet. And if you aren’t going to make the playoffs you might as well draft 1st. Regular season record is largely irrelevant other than determining who makes the playoffs and who plays who in the playoffs.
Tanking comes at a price. Fans don’t come out to watch a lousy team. They don’t turn on their TVs to watch them either.
Ask the Cubs and Astros what the price of tanking is
Unfair to cite the Cubs. Very, very loyal fanbase continued to show up to games, despite not winning anything for over 100+ years. Not sure tanking affected their fanbase at all and it was worth it.
Astros haven’t won anything..ever (Since 1965 –the inception of the franchise, So the same applies to them.
But Tigers,are a different story. Tanking is the antithesis of what the late, great Mr. ilitch was about. It will be interesting to see, how this affects their fans moving forward. You already see some fans here (unfairly) blaming the “kids” for rebuilding, the Cubs– Astros way.
From all indications, it looks like Tigers are moving in a positive direction under Al Avila. I hope to see the franchise in Astros /Cubs situation very soon.
So are you saying they should keep trying to contend by trading all their prospects and overpaying free agents? You want them to be the next 2014 Phillies?
What’s to like? All four are mediocre teams with mediocre farm systems.
That’s a fallacious response, cherry-picking those clubs, when there is no certain formula for fielding a playoff team. What is certain is that there are as many teams who go nowhere after a total rebuild as are successful. In baseball, there are as many lower round draft picks who turn out to be great players as there are in higher rounds, so tanking doesn’t guarantee success any more than reloading.
You don’t know what they have and they don’t even know what they have. A team can get as many good prospects drafting late as they can get early. It’s not the NBA and it’s certainly not your fantasy team where if you don’t win it all, the season is irrelevant.
Well Ryan-I have a slight difference of opinion here. If you are a national league fan from NYC being a met supporter is the worst
That’s a pessimistic response. The first step is not being in denial thinking you’re a contender, when you’re clearly not. Thankfully AA swallowed his pride and took the long route, to retool and reload.
The beauty of the Tigers is when the time comes, they will have the money to spend like the Cubs, and min like the Astros. (4 years $52MM to Josh Reddick) to compliment pieces to a championship team. You don’t have a Mets problem, A’s problem.. etc.
Detroit Tigers are a respectable franchise. That didn’t die with Mr. ilitch, and his spirit lives on, with culture he built.
You have no reason to be pessimistic. Embrace the tank, embrace the #1 pick. Hope for the next Carlos Correa. Embrace the prospects you’ll soon be getting in trades (other than the ones you haven’t got) And quite being so negative. I don’t need to do math showing you the chances of #1 pick panning over rest, do I? Tigers have a brighter future than you think.
As has been pointed out to you before, there is no certain formula for fielding a winning team, but there IS a certain formula for fielding a losing team and it’s basically what you are suggesting the Tigers do. Get out of here!
No one said it’s the NBA, prospects taken earlier are still more likely to succeed than prospects taken later. And yeah the season is irrelevant if you don’t make the playoffs.
Unless you are a fan and actually want to see an entertaining game.
Prospects taken earlier are NOT more likely to succeed. Do you even follow baseball? Sure, they’re more likely to reach the majors, but that doresn’t mean they’ll be there for very long and it certainly doesn’t mean they’ll be worth the price of tanking just to get a high pick: https://www.fangraphs.com/community/success-rate-of-mlb-first-round-draft-picks-by-slot/
“Get out of here”? What are you, 12?
Why do so many people think you can only contend by trading away all your prospects and overpaying free agents? You contend by assembling a solid core of players and fill out a team around them. The Tigers had the core until they decided to blow it up for salary relief. Verlander, Cabrera, Fulmer, Kinsler and Upton weren’t the problem that kept them from making the playoffs. The cheaper players they added to them who failed were the reason they didn’t make the playoffs.
They could have remade the team the way Dombrowski did after the 2013 season without having a fire sale. Apparently they didn’t have confidence in themselves that they could pull it off so they took the easy way out and blew it up.
The game is always entertaining. Are you seriously telling me that you’d rather be stuck in the middle than suck for a few years and then have a young, talented, hungry roster?
There is no evidence they would have been stuck in the middle or have a young, talented hungry roster in a few years. They could have a young, cheap, awful team in a few years. The Cardinals won a World Series after an 83 win season a few years ago. Anything can happen in baseball.Their chance of turning it around were much better with Verlander, Fulmer, Cabrera, Upton and Kinsler on the team than with the 10 lottery tickets they bought.
What they did do was save the owner a load of money.
Ah yes, the old cherry-pick an outlier and take it as the norm. If the best you can do record-wise is slightly above .500 the smart thing to do is rebuild. There might be no guarantee that they will end up like the Cubs or Astros, but they were never going to win anything with the aging, expensive core they had a year ago so why not take a chance?
Davila–your going to hurt Goat and Mr Hills feelings.! Can you hear them crying”bahhhhh and Oh No”?
Tanking is the dumbest catch word in baseball these days.
Their is a difference between tanking and not going all in to win. Look at the Twins this year, they certainly didn’t tank it but they also traded away a starter (I know he only pitched one game) and their closer at the deadline. The Tigers don’t need to lose on purpose but there is no point in spend resources to finish 3rd in the division.
When Craig counsel was hired by the Brewers they intended to do a rebuild by trading Lucroy and letting go of others. To their surprise they actually had a decent year with Big results from Travis Shaw, Manny Pina, Eric Sofard before injures Neil Walker late in the season. I believe this is the new thing now in the mlb. New manager start from scratch and build from there. Sometimes it takes more than a year to do it. I can see them signing Ron to a 5 year contract.
Close.. 3 year deal!
New thing? hahaha
AA already said it is a TOTAL REBUILD and it will be a lean couple of seasons. Kins will prob be gone in off season. sorry to bust your bubble
You’re not busting anyone’s bubble, as your argument doesn’t even have the force of a pin prick. AA never used those words and if it was a total rebuild, Fulmer and Boyd would both be gone, which isn’t going to happen.
No, that is called a fire sale and is one way to rebuild. But the smart way is to sell high on your established pieces. Fulmer is coming off an injury so they would be selling low if they traded him now. With 5 more years of control, there isn’t any kind of urgency to trade him just yet. He could theoretically still be with the Tigers when they start to contend again with as much control as he has.
The Tigers got an early start with Fulmer, Boyd, Norris, McCann, Mahtook and Candelario. Trading them would make as much sense as the Yankees moving Judge last off-season. The Yankees were weak at the corners and had a questionable rotation. They weren’t the favorite, so they should have moved Judge while his value was highest? That’s not how rebuilds work. You keep the young players who can get better. Only the White Sox traded the young, cheap, SIGNED players, and that story hasn’t been written yet. To this point, the WS have done little worth copying.
Engaging in a semantic pissing contest is a lame cover for misquoting AA. Again, he never used the words “total rebuild”.
Rare logic on this site, Sty, and excellent example of the difference between teams like the current Tigers roster and the 2000-2003 teams. Some people just parrot talking points regarding “rebuilding” with little or no knowledge of the facts, or if they have the facts, they have a perverse need to be negative.
Yankees were never rebuilding. What they did last year was retooling. They realized that last year wasn’t their year so they cashed in all their established players on expiring contracts and geared up for 2017 and beyond. Essentially what the Tigers did two years ago.
Tigers ARE rebulding! Teams that aren’t rebuilding don’t trade Justin Verlander or Justin Upton. I swear, there is nothing worse than a casual fan thinking they know baseball.
Again rebuilding doesn’t mean you have to trade away good young pieces, like Fulmer. If after year 4 of the rebuild they start to show improvements they could trade Fulmer then (Assuming he’s been pitching well) for a few MLB ready prospects from a team Astros, Yankees, or Dodgers, teams that are WS ready and might only need a starter to get them over the top and have good farm systems. Then in year 5 you start to contend on the low end of the spectrum (re: 2017 Twins) while getting those young guys experience and then in year 6 you can go all in, especially with the payroll and team like Detroit afford. The time line can vary obviously but the concept remains the same trade older players that have value now (Kinsler, Verlander, Upton, ect.) for prospects, hold onto young players and either trade or resign them when they become FA eligible depending on where you are in the rebuild and how they fit in. With all that said you hope your first couple years are really bad so you get high draft picks.
Of course the Tigers are under no obligation to trade Fulmer. But if they get a fair offer they’d be smart to cuz otherwise they’d be wasting his years of cheap control.
Uh, they’re moving on up, baby!
In my opinion, they should’ve gone with Dave Martinez. Especially IF they are going with a full rebuild. Just my opinion on Detroit’s situation.
I like Dave Martinez but experience trumps potential in a rebuild.
I respect your opinion
Tigers are lucky to have him. Gardy was the best available in my opinion.
Great hire.
Gardenhire.
Big time move by Avila
Best choice! Three cheers for AA, Hip-Hip-Hooray.
So Gardy won’t start managing the Twins for 17,995 years?
#gotheeeeeeeeeeeem
Glad I’m not the only one who noticed that.
The contract isn’t signed yet, but if they want Gardy, they know they’re going to have to dig a lot deeper than they would if they were just cutting costs across the board and decided on someone with no experience.
Great to see him back! Good luck sir!
I was hoping the Sox were going to GardenHire him.
He should have been the manager 3 years ago.
He’s not signed yet. All is says is they intend to sign him.
to bad the kids are in charge of the team,they will gut it and worry about the bottom line, not winning, like the ole man wanted….
would have been nice to see what Ronnie, could have done with a team willing to go for it ,after years of penny pinching Terry Ryan and the skinflint McPohlands
“Kids”? They’re in their 50’s and 60’s!
and Jim and Rob McPohlad are also in there 50-60s, and they are the kids who took over in Minnesota
This honestly seems more Gardy’s speed than Boston
Sox fan here. Great hire by the Tigers!
Nice sox, but wrong color. Need to be red 🙂
Ok
Was surprised it took this long for someone to hire Gardy. Seemed like no one wanted him for a while. Shame he ended up on a team that is unlikely to win anything for another 4 or 5 years.
It may be the cancer factor that makes teams hesitant of hiring Ron Gardenhire. Also, they are still in negotiations.
Gardenhire’s Twins were always rebuilding. I thought he had a knack for getting the best people on the field and always seemed to have the best bullpen assembled from MLB’s scrap heap.
A bunch of teams passed on him before the cancer thing happened. I think they might have been scared off by his subpar postseason track record, but obviously that won’t be an issue for Detroit for a while.
You wish …
No I don’t. I am indifferent to the Detroit Tigers
“Indifferent” people don’t render opinions based on fallacies and they don’t repeat the same narrative in an obvious intent to elicit a response. Well, they don’t unless they’re an adolescent.
Pot, meet kettle.
? Well, i suppose that’s the best you can do.
It’s all I need to do.
No, it’s all you’re CAPABLE of doing. You’re an ignorant, frustrated AH who responds to any post you find disagreeable like a adolescent. If you’re an adult, you obviously have some serious maturation issues.
Wow. I admire your drive. You just responded to a thread that no one has commented on in almost two months. You’re still an idiot tho.
Dombrowski misses again.
Nice little typo
He started in 20012
Typo #2…. he started in 2002
One would have to think if he’s still in the mix in Boston that would be more appealing than Detroit. I don’t see this as a done deal yet. Why would you want to manage a rebuilding team over one that’s mostly in place? Although he’s an obvious choice from a rebuilding clubs point of view.
Sox going with Cora apparently.
Gardenhire? Wow, old managers get recycled more often than aluminum cans.
“20012” you mean from 2000-2012?
Good for the Tigers, I’m less optimistic about their roster, and their prospects are having a recent roster in the next 2 to 3 years
Gardenhire is an old school gut feel guy.
Tigers recently hired a bunch of Sabermetrics staff to go in a “different direction”.
How does one reconcile this oxymoronic union?
Is this the script for Moneyball 2?
Hired the analytic staff 4 yrs late. Ausmus tried to get them to do this his first season
That Gardenhire didn’t take advantage of what the Twins didn’t provide, is hardly surprising. It does not mean that he is unable to, or unwilling to. It doesn’t appear it was a problem in Arizona. I just know that his teams with the Twins were sound on the fundamentals. They were good defensively, and they threw strikes. Great starting points for a young team.
Great move for the Tigers.
Rick Anderson announced as new pitching coach in 3…2…1..
Gardy to the Tigers, Cora to the Bosox, Manny Acta to the Mets and, … Brad Ausmus to the beach!
bench* edited
What? I’m sure he’d make a really good bench coach somewhere 😛
He will take a year off ala Tito and be back with success if he doesn’t get Sox job. I think that was his plan all along then Boston opened up and that has always been his temptation.
He’ll be missed in Arizona.
what with Arizona Laroach and now grandy are they a abanding ship?
GardenHired!
Someone else posted that before you.
Swing and a miss.
Welcome Back Gardenhire. Will be rooting for you for years to come
“He spent thirteen years running things for the Twins, beginning in 2012.”
It certain;y will be an advantage to the Tigers to have a time traveler as a manager… 😉
About the oxymoronic union of gut and geeks… a metaphor:
Tigers probably figure that Gardenhire knows how to drive cars well…whether a ’87 5.7 Liter Firebird, or a ’18 Chevy Volt. The fact that they are changing the guts of the car can be compartmentalized from the driver of the car.
I like Gardy in general, but among other things, expect the Tigers to have a left-handed hitting second baseman who will invariably hit second. Gardy loves that scenario, for some reason.
My hunch is Gardenhire had a choice and chose right. Happy to see you in Detroit, good man,
Gardenhire’s post-season record is 2-19 which, I guess, is better than Molitor’s which is 0-1. Gardy interhited a Twins team that Tom Kelly had built and was on the cusp of a playoff run in 2001. All Gardy did was steer the ship after that. Not very popular in Minnesota, overall. A fun, but repetitive interview, with his scrappy nicknmames for scrappy players.
That 2001 Twins team was never going to be a baseball dynasty. Most of the players peaked by 2000-2001-2002 and not at the same time.. Tom Kelly was a good Manager. However, Ron Gardenhire was able to recognize and utilize under-performing pitchers and maintain MLB’s best bullpen until the bottom fell out. I’m not sure sabermetrics will do that for you.
Why are the Red Sox required to wait until the end of the ALCS, but the Tigers can do this now? Is Cora not the slam dunk we think he is, or do the Tigers lack some sort of professional courtesy by announcing now? It’s really one or the other, isn’t it?
Dude it’s pretty simple….. Gardenhires team the diamondbacks were out of the playoffs so he can interview and sign wherever after that happens. The astros r still in the playoffs sooooooo Cora can not interview for or take another job until his team is eliminated
The report is that Cora will be named manager at the conclusion of the ALCS and before the world series. That was the report even when the Astros were leading the series and the assumption was that they’d be moving on. From what I read, announcements are supposed to be made in between series and definitely not on game days so as not to upstage the actual games. And Cora already interviewed for multiple teams.
This was a real coup d’état. They now have a real Gardenmanager to be a real Field Man-ager and finally get their front lawn mowed correctly. Ron will bring in his goats and wife to make sure the turf is watered and well fertilized. Word on the street is he and his gal will live in a tent at Comerica and work on the lawn and develop a frog garden to give kids frogs when they visit.. As the field manager, Ron has a bus with him and is taking driving lessons. That way he can drive home drunk players or help unruly fans leave the stadium with a free ride home. Of course he will drive the team to the airport and local spots, saving thousands. He may even have a flower garden. Great move Tigers on hiring a real garden manager.
HEADLINE: Nick Punto to unretire and make a comeback with the Tigers.
Twins fans are celebrating getting to go up against Gardy for the next 3 years.
No postseason success with the Twins
Preferred veteran talent and did not develop many rookies
Always a “sucker” for marginal middle infield talent
Tiger fans will have their fill of his player nicknames in a week
No matter what he says about metrics, he’s old school relying on gut feel & his favorites
Has a deep, dark, doghouse and will have the GM moving out players he doesn’t like
Those may turn out to be wise moves or BIG mistakes
Once on his good side, he’ll keep playing you even if you don’t perform.
SORRY TIGERS = Wrong Guy at the Wrong Time BUT Smiles from MN, KC CWS for 3 Yrs
He’s only here for the entertainment value and box office draw. Nothing else matters. This tells me they know it will be 2021 or beyond before they start being respectable.
Oh so you admit they aren’t gonna contend until then? In that case why not stockpile you, cheap controllable talent?
No one on this site “knows” when any team is going to contend. It’s much easier to say if you trade away the talented young players that contending won’t happen. All you can be guaranteed is that you will acquire controllable and cheap players. Whether they become Talent is not a guarantee.
Tigers not contending 2018 or 2019 no matter what they did would have been a pretty safe bet. WIth the money cleared by trading Upton and Verlander, the prospects acquired for Verlander, Wilson, Avila and JDM and the #1 overall pick next summer, they are looking much better for 2020 and beyond than they would be if they maintained the status quo.
Easy to say. If Cabrera is healthy, 2017 turns out much differently. If Mr I is still alive, they are still adding pieces. Since Cabrera wasn’t healthy, and Mr I has passed, the family chose this direction, however. Now we can only hope that the prospects we received have a better success rate than the prospects we traded away during our run.
For those they want to say Gardenhire is “old school” because the Twins did not provide analytics when he was there, there are some positives about “gut” decisions. In ’84, Kirk Gibson would have never been allowed to face Goose Gossage, using today’s analytics.
While I’ll admit I have no knowledge of any backstory of the 1984 Tigers, Kirk Gibson had a 142 wRC+ that year, so every manager today would play him every day so long as he’s healthy. Serious question: was he injured, or are you just guessing that a modern manager would’ve pinch hit for him?
As I remember, Gibby had faced Gossage about 25 times and had struck out 21 times, something ridiculous like that. Only a “gut” decision allowed him to put that first pitch in the upper deck.