https://totallytigers.wordpress.com/2022/08/12/saturday-survey-40/
SATURDAY SURVEY.
Totally Tigers
Earlier this week, Chris Ilitch fired his GM, Al Avila.
Avila was hired by his father, Mike Ilitch, in 2015. Chris took over the team in 2017 upon his father?s passing. At that time, the roster was one of MLB?s oldest and the payroll was ranked as the 3rd highest and just $1 mill away from being #2. The Tigers had MLB?s highest operational expenses ? almost double that of the next team.
The Tigers also had been losing money almost every year for the last decade of Mr. I?s tenure. It was clear that some sort of rebuild was in order.
While often referred to as the owner, Chris is actually the Chair and CEO of the Tigers, which is held in a trust. That trust contains a number of family members who all have a say in how the organization is run.
It is worth considering that it would have taken Ilitch 1-2 years to become thoroughly familiar with how the Tigers were run under his father, especially the financial aspects and specific departments within the organization. That would have put the timeline for realistically starting to consider changes, including the GM position, at the 2018-2019 years. It was in this last year (July 2019) that he extended Avila to a contract of unknown length. Reports now peg that contract as running through the 2023 season.
The 2020 season complicated the baseball world due to Covid and resulted in a shortened season of only 60 games.
Logically, this timeline leaves the last 2 years (2021 and 2022) for Ilitch to fairly evaluate the work of his GM. Consider that Avila was given the task of tearing the team down that ran from 2017 through 2020 while also updating and improving analytics, the minor league system, player development and drafting, among the many issues. He had started to rebuild the roster in 2021 and 2022.
Now that Ilitch has fired Al Avila and indicated that changes are coming to the Tigers, what do you think about Chris now as it pertains to his leadership of this team?
What do you think of Chris Ilitch's leadership now?
1. Impressed
2. Cautiously optimistic
3. Pessimistic
VOTE