Bob Nightengale

USA TODAY Sports

LAKELAND, Fla. -- Al Avila was at the auto dealership in Detroit, turning his car in for a new lease, when his cell phone rang that early August afternoon.

It was Detroit Tigers 86-year-old owner Mike Ilitch.

“This is the deal,” the conversation began.

Dave Dombrowski, president and GM of the team, was out. He wanted to know whether Avila was in.

“They had doubts whether I’d take it or not,’’ Avila, who worked alongside Dombrowski nearly 25 years, told USA TODAY Sports. “It would have been very difficult to do the firing of Dave, and then all of a sudden, not know I’m going to do the job.’’

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They talked for 20 minutes, and by the time they hung up, Avila was given a five-year contract, given assurances he could restructure his front office, hire more scouts, bring in an analytics department, and spend big money in the international market.

And, oh, yes, please don’t say a word to anybody.

Three days went by and Dombrowski still did not yet know the decision to fire him had already been made. It wasn’t until 3 p.m. on Aug. 5, that Ilitch telephoned Dombrowski and told him that he was fired. Avila, his loyal lieutenant, was his replacement.

Dombrowski hung up, walked out of the office, rushed past Avila in the hallway to retrieve his son, who had been shagging balls in the outfield, and left the building.

This is how Avila’s long-awaited GM career began, the history of becoming the first Cuban GM overshadowed by a clumsy transition.

“Those emotions, they were so awkward and difficult,’’ Avila, 57, said. “It wasn’t good. I didn’t know what to do. I mean, once ownership calls you, your loyalty is the owner. You can’t say anything.

“It might have been the most stressful week I ever had.’’

The move stunned the baseball industry. Dombrowski had been with the Tigers for 14 years, leading them to two pennants and four consecutive AL Central titles, but never winning that coveted World Series. They were headed to their first losing season since 2008.

Dombrowski privately sensed he might be fired. His contract was expiring at the end of the season, and there were no extension talks. He even predicted to his wife after a Tigers’ charity event the previous evening that he would be fired.

Still, when the call came, it still felt like a sucker punch. When he passed Avila in the hallway, he was still dazed, too numb to congratulate the man who had been alongside him.

“At that point, my mind was spinning,’’ Dombrowski said. “It’s one of thing things I really haven’t said much about it, and I don’t know that I want to, but I will say Al was in an awkward spot. It really put him in an awkward situation when he knew a few days before I did.’’

When the news of Dombrowski’s firing reached the clubhouse, Avila’s son, catcher Alex Avila, was stunned to watch his dad walk through the door and announce he was in charge.

“When they let Dave go, I actually thought my dad was getting fired too,’’ Alex Avila said. “I thought there was going to be a housecleaning. You talk about a roller-coaster of emotions.’’

The truth is that Avila, the son of long-time Dodgers vice president Ralph Avila, should have been a GM more than a decade ago. He is beloved by his peers for his easy-going personality, widely respected by players for his baseball acumen, and will always be remembered as the one who convinced the Marlins to sign a 16-year-old Venezuelan by the name of Miguel Cabrera to a $1.8 million contract in 1999.

Looking back, Avila says, the Seattle Mariners probably came the closest to hiring him for a GM job in 2003 before turning to Bill Bavasi. He interviewed in Arizona before the Diamondbacks hired Josh Byrnes in 2005. And in Baltimore in 2006, which went to Andy MacPhail. And in Cincinnati, who hired Wayne Krivsky.

“I really thought I had a good chance in Seattle,’’ Avila said. “I remember them calling me up, and I though the job was mine.

“There were times I felt my interviews were serious, and others that I felt like they were just going through the motions.’’

The New York Mets telephoned Avila in 2010 after firing Omar Minaya, the first Hispanic GM in baseball history. It was no secret that Sandy Alderson would wind up with the job, so Avila declined the interview, knowing it would be a waste of time.

“Come on, they were not going to hire a Latin guy after just firing a Latin guy,’’ Avila said. “You know what I mean? At least that was my opinion.’’

So Avila gave up any aspirations of becoming a GM. He sat down with Ilitch and Dombrowski and negotiated a deal where he would become the highest-paid assistant GM in baseball if he agreed to forgo a GM job elsewhere.

“After a while,’’ Avila said, “it wasn’t something I had to have. I had everything I needed here. The way I looked at it was that if we won a World Series, then maybe Dave would make me the GM. I thought maybe it would happen down the road.’’

It instead happened less than 24 hours after the trade deadline, a week in which Dombrowski unloaded ace David Price, outfielder Yoenis Cespedes and closer Joakim Soria

“Al Avila is a true baseball man,’’ Ilitch told USA TODAY Sports in an e-mail. “He’s been involved in every facet of the game ... His track record in identifying and developing talent is extremely impressive.

“Al's worked hard over the course of his career to afford himself this opportunity with the Detroit Tigers. I’m confident in him, and Al is already demonstrating his own effective approach and style to our general manager position."

Dombrowski, who would become the Boston Red Sox’s president of baseball operations three weeks later, has since talked with Avila. They saw one another at the GM meetings in November, and again at the winter meetings in December, and in February at a spring-training social function. They kept the mood light, and didn’t delve into the circumstances of the split.

Avila instead told him how family members were wearing Chicago White Sox T-shirts and caps at the Thanksgiving dinner table now that Alex is in Chicago. And Dombrowski told him to just wait, it will feel a whole lot more bizarre watching Alex standing at the plate trying to beat the Tigers this year.

“People like Al, he’s an extremely personal guy,’’ Dombrowski said. “I think the communication will serve him well. We all have our strengths and weaknesses, but if there’s something he needs a little bit of help with, he has people on board to do that.’’

Their relationship likely will never be fully restored. It’s almost impossible considering the circumstances. Yet, while their friendship may be scarred, it’s hardly ruined, not after everything they’ve been through together.

“I’m really happy for him,’’ Dombrowski said. “He’s always worked hard, very knowledgeable, and has been very loyal. I know it was awkward, but I’m glad he got this opportunity.’’

And, oh, baby, is Avila ever running with it.

By the time the smoke cleared, there wasn’t a single person who left the organization. Even when Dombrowski was hired three weeks later by the Red Sox, not a soul defected.

Avila moved quickly to promote several of his lieutenants, heading off any defections, even after Dombrowski was hired three weeks later by the Red Sox.

“When I took this job I said to Mr. Ilitch,’’ Avila said, “You can’t be spending money like this forever. You can’t keep spending $200 million on the payroll, and cutting back here and cutting back there. There are things I need.’’

So the Tigers added an analytics department. They hired three major league scouts. They beefed up player development. They put an extra coach at Class AAA. They hired an international cross checker. They’re going to build an academy in the Dominican Republic. And they will pursue all of the top dogs in the international market, and won’t be afraid to exceed the bonus limit.

The Tigers are even going to develop a manual that will be called The Tigers’ Way of Playing Baseball, a nod to his father’s roots in the old Dodgers system.

“We really haven’t spent money on player development,” says Avila. “We really haven’t spent money internationally. We’ve been in check really in everything we do based on the fact that we’ve been spending so much at the big league level.

“You’re going to see that turn a little bit as we move into future years.’’

So what does he do in his first winter? He spent $132.75 million on free-agent outfielder Justin Upton. Spend another $110 million on free-agent starter Jordan Zimmermann. And completely revamped their bullpen with the acquisitions of closer Francisco Rodriguez, left-handed reliever Justin Wilson and right-hander Mark Lowe.

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If Avila had his druthers, he would have traded for Andrew Miller of the Yankees, Craig Kimbrel of the Padres, or Aroldis Chapman of the Reds. He discovered quickly that their farm system was too depleted to pull it off.

Perhaps Avila’s most vital decision of all was deciding the fate of manager Brad Ausmus. The Tigers finished last in the AL Central with a 74-87 record, and he was the easy scapegoat, with WDIV-TV and the Detroit Free Press reporting on Sept.11 that Ausmus would be fired at the season’s conclusion.

“Quite frankly,’’ Ausmus said, “I thought I was going to get fired too. I was thinking, how often do those reports come out and it doesn’t happen.”

It would have been the easy move, but Avila resisted. He telephoned Ausmus and denied the reports, telling him he needed more time before making a decision.

“I remember (former Tigers manager) Jim Leyland’s advice to me was that once you make a decision, do it,’’ Avila said. “Don’t wait a month to do it. Don’t play it out. It’s better to put an interim guy the last month of the season than waiting until the end.’’

The final week of the season, Avila telephoned Ausmus one morning, and told him that he’s coming back. No lengthy discussion. No talk of an extension. Simply, you’re back.

“When you look at everything we went through,’’ Avila said, “Brad kept them playing hard until the end. How do you fire a guy after that?’’

Avila stared ahead, slammed his fist on his desk for emphasis, and said: “I’m not saying he has a free pass, but he deserved this chance.

“I wanted to put together a team that has a chance to compete. We’ve got that now. No excuses.’’

Let’s the Avila era begin, in a bit more conventional style.

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