MLB notes: Tigers to part ways with manager Brad Ausmus

The rebuilding Detroit Tigers will start fresh next season with a new manager after the club announced Friday that Brad Ausmus will not return in 2018.

General manager Al Avila said the team was not extending Ausmus’ contract, meaning the manager’s four-year tenure will end when this season is over.

“We didn’t win,” Avila said while announcing the move in the Detroit dugout before Friday night’s game. “The organization, the club, got to a point where we needed change on the field. We needed to change the roster, and we started trading players, so the conclusion is: OK, you know what? Let’s just take a whole brand new road and opening up to new things.”

Ausmus was 312-325 heading into Friday’s game against Minnesota. His tenure included an AL Central title in his first season, but the Tigers have not made the postseason since. Detroit has been shedding payroll this year, trading stars Justin Verlander, Justin Upton and J.D. Martinez, and the Tigers are assured of no better than a fourth-place finish in their division.

“Al and I have become very good friends over the four years I was here, so it was a little emotional when he told me he wasn’t going to bring me back,” Ausmus said. “Quite frankly, I told him I fully understood, and I told him, if he had walked in and offered me a contract, I probably wouldn’t have come back, because I think this team, this organization is starting over. They need a new voice.”

Ausmus took over for Jim Leyland before the 2014 season, inheriting a star-laden roster, but one that was starting to show the effects of age. Now the Tigers face a rebuilding period.

Detroit went 86-75 last year and nearly made the playoffs, and the Tigers kept their team largely intact, hoping they could contend again in 2017. Ausmus returned as well this year after Detroit picked up his option, but the Tigers weren’t even able to mount a serious challenge for a wild card.

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The Cincinnati Reds have agreed on a four-year contract extension with catcher Tucker Barnhart that includes a club option for 2022. Barnhart became the primary catcher with Devin Mesoraco repeatedly injured. Mesoraco has been limited to 95 games the last three seasons and is currently sidelined with a broken left foot. He makes $13 million next season, the final on a four-year, $28-million deal. Barnhart is making $517,500 and would have been eligible for salary arbitration in the offseason for the first time. He’s batting .272 with six homers and 42 RBIs. He has only one error and leads major league catchers in fielding percentage. …

The Mets plan to have ace Noah Syndergaard make a one-inning start Saturday in his first major league game in nearly five months. Syndergaard has been out since April 30 because of a partially torn lat muscle on his right side. The Mets are playing the NL East champion Washington Nationals this weekend. … Chicago Cubs pitcher Anyel Beato and Los Angeles Dodgers minor league pitcher Oliver Polanco have been suspended for 72 games under baseball’s minor league drug program following positive tests for metabolites of Stanozolol. Both were playing in the Dominican Summer League. There have been 62 suspensions this year under the minor league drug program and five under the major league program. …

Milwaukee Brewers minor leaguer Julio Mendez, who was seriously hurt after being hit in the chest by a pitch last month, has been moved to a hospital in his home country of Venezuela. Brewers general manager David Stearns says Mendez remains in critical but stable condition at the Venezuelan hospital after being moved at the request of his family. The Brewers say that Mendez suffered a cardiac event after getting hit by the pitch during a Rookie League game on Aug. 26 in Tempe, Ariz. Mendez’s family has asked for privacy.