Fenech: New Tigers GM has own style, must have substance

The general manager sat at a round table inside the Tiger Club, talking about what the Detroit Tigers need to return to the postseason.

There were no television cameras at his season-ending meeting with reporters Thursday, but there was food. There was pasta and chicken and loaded mashed potatoes, and for the beat writers who accepted the team's invitation to the informal luncheon, there was a different feel to the final meeting of the year.

Dave Dombrowski was not there. He is in Boston these days running the Red Sox. The longtime Tigers president and GM was fired a few days after the trade deadline this summer.

"The hardest thing was to take over the job when it happened," Al Avila said. "It did not happen the way I dreamt about it. I always figured I'd come here and work for X amount of years, then go and interview somewhere, and someone would hire you somewhere. You would take over that way."

Instead, Avila, Dombrowski's longtime assistant, took over in the most abrupt of ways, talking on a stage at Comerica Park on Aug. 4 a short while after one of his closest friends walked out of the stadium where he'd worked for more than a decade.

Avila shares similarities with Dombrowski, but he has his own style.

At one news conference in the past, Dombrowski pulled out a list of young pitchers the Tigers had targeted. In this setting, Avila pulled out a list of the team's young prospects.

But there was nothing informal about Dombrowski, or the way he addressed the media — always from that stage inside Interview Room No. 2. And there was no food served to the hungry reporters, only cleverly crafted answers that kept the team's secrets in the closet.

Avila didn't say anything out of the ordinary Thursday — the Tigers need two starting pitchers, they need bullpen help, they will operate under a "very highly competitive payroll," and he wouldn't get into what that number was — but the setting and manner in which he did was anything but ordinary.

He opened up about the decision to bring back manager Brad Ausmus for a third season.

"On my mind 24/7 about whether to fire him or not," Avila said. "I had the authority to keep him or not keep him. It was up to me to decide, so it was on my mind 24/7. It's not like I took the job and said, 'I'm keeping him no matter what or firing him no matter what.' "

Avila shot down any speculation that he reached out to potential managerial candidates, saying: "We did not talk to one single solitary person." He expressed interest in signing rightfielder J.D. Martinez to a contract extension and told one reporter that he wouldn't bet his house on right-handed pitching prospect Michael Fulmer breaking spring camp with the team, but would bet the reporter's.

It was a lengthy media session. Avila spoke for nearly an hour, and there were even some laughs. It was the latest look at the laid-back personality that will lead the Tigers into the future.

He passed his first test this season, keeping the front office intact. He made his first big decision in bringing Ausmus back. Now, the biggest test is on deck.

"Not in my wildest dreams did I think we'd have a brutal season like we had with all the changes that took place," Avila said.

On Thursday, the biggest change was on full display.

Contact Anthony Fenech: afenech@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @anthonyfenech. Download our Tigers Xtra app for free on Apple and Android devices!

Key dates

Oct. 13: Arizona Fall League begins.

Oct. 27: World Series starts, city of American League champion.

Nov. 4: World Series Game 7 (if needed).

Five days after World Series: Free agency begins.

Nov. 9-12: GM meetings, Boca Raton, Fla.

Dec. 7-10: Winter meetings, Nashville, Tenn.

Jan. 12: Arbitration filing.

Jan. 15: Salary arbitration figures exchanged.

Feb. 18: Voluntary reporting date for pitchers, catchers and injured players.

Feb. 23: Voluntary reporting date for other players.

March 1: Mandatory reporting date.

April 5: Season opener at Miami.

April 8: Home opener vs. Yankees.