Detroit Tigers GM Avila signals new phase in rebuild: ‘We’ve got to build it back up’

Detroit Tigers General Manager Al Avila during a news conference Feb. 10, 2017. (WDIV)

DETROIT – The Detroit Tigers are entering the next phase of a rebuild.

That’s according to Detroit Tigers general manager Al Avila, who talked to MLB.com’s Jason Beck about the future of the team.

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“Our mindset here is to move forward now and build back up,” Avila told Beck. “Obviously we’ve made a lot of trades. We’ve traded pretty much everybody that we needed to trade. We’re at a point where the team is very young, and now we’re at a point where we’ve got to build it back up.”

The Tigers lost 114 games in 2019 -- securing the first overall pick in the MLB Draft.

“We lost a lot of games last year,” Avila said, “so it’s one of the things that we’ve talked about. First day in Spring Training: Fellas, let’s go. This is your time to step up. We feel good in the next three years that we can build this up. Are you going to be part of that? Or is it going to be somebody else from the Minor Leagues who’s going to be part of that? Or are we going to have to go out and get somebody else to be part of that? These guys are going to be given an opportunity, but it’s not going to be handed to them.”

Avila talked about a few players they’re hoping to develop and what they’ll be looking for this off-season. Read more of the interview here.


About the Author:

Ken Haddad has proudly been with WDIV/ClickOnDetroit since 2013. He also authors the Morning Report Newsletter and various other newsletters, and helps lead the WDIV Insider team. He's a big sports fan and is constantly sipping Lions Kool-Aid.