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Drew Sharp: Tigers shouldn’t keep Ausmus without extended deal

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Detroit Free Press

The stalwarts still showed up Sunday afternoon as the Tigers mercifully closed the book on the home chapter of a nightmarish season.tmpplchld Perfect weather clashed with the imperfect year.tmpplchld But that didn’t stop the loyalists from one last trip to Comerica Park and thus one last chance at seeing the structural frailties that crashed and burned the 2015 campaign.tmpplchld Perhaps desensitized by chronically faulty pitching, the crowd of 33,000-plus barely murmured their discontent when the Tigers pulled transient starter Randy Wolf in Minnesota’s six-run second inning.tmpplchld Everyone’s comfortably numb by now.tmpplchld That’s why the stunning news of Brad Ausmus returning in 2016 didn’t exactly set Detroit afire in furious rage Saturday. When you have taken as many shots to the gut as this baseball town did this season, you stop feeling the pain after a while. It’s only apropos that the Tigers couldn’t end their losing season without one more inexplicable train wreck leaving everyone dazed.tmpplchld Not blaming Ausmus isn’t the same as having confidence in him.tmpplchld The Tigers’ decision doesn’t make sense unless it includes a contract extension, providing Ausmus with at least a small measure of security beyond 2016. Instead, he’s basically functioning under a one-year deal. (The Tigers hold a team option for 2017.)tmpplchld That’s the recipe for preparing a lame duck.tmpplchld “I don’t care one bit about my contract,” Ausmus said defiantly when pressed about it Sunday. “I’m not worried one bit. Jim Leyland went with one-year contracts and it didn’t seem to bother him.”tmpplchld Ausmus strongly argued that length of contract didn’t matter if the players lacked respect for the manager. And he said that had never been the case with the Tigers. And while not leaning on injuries as a crutch, he added that “we’ve really only been fully together as a team for just a couple games.”tmpplchld It’s not his fault that he lost three of his biggest stars (Justin Verlander, Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez) for a total of 20 weeks on the disabled list. Tony LaRussa would have difficulty winning under those circumstances. It’s also not his fault that in his first two years as manager, he’s had a fully healthy Verlander at his disposal for only the last four weeks. And it certainly doesn’t make any manager’s job easier with a bullpen lacking sustainable, definable roles.tmpplchld The Tigers can’t help but have a little better luck on many fronts next season.tmpplchld But bringing Ausmus back without an extension only further reaffirms the larger indecisiveness regarding the direction of this franchise.tmpplchld It also suggests a willingness to save pennies where they can while still spending dimes on a payroll that will rank among the largest in baseball in 2016. Did the Ilitches desire paying a fired manager $3 million for 2016 while also paying a more established skipper (Ron Gardenhire or maybe even Buck Showalter) perhaps twice as much to come in next season and right a wavering ship?tmpplchld That’s unlikely.tmpplchld The Tigers will sell the working relationship between Ausmus and general manager Al Avila as more of a partnership of equals than the rapport the manager had with the departed Dave Dombrowski. Perhaps there can be more a frank discussion about the roster’s flaws, more of an argumentative, yet constructive back-and-forth since Ausmus and Avila remain relative novices in their respective roles.tmpplchld That’s not exactly the most dazzling sales pitch with a handful of games remaining in the season.tmpplchld The Tigers averaged a little more than three million fans from 2012-14. This year’s season attendance was 2,726,048 _ the sixth highest in franchise history. But it’s nonetheless a drop of more than 200,000 from last year.tmpplchld “The fans are entitled to be mad,” designated hitter Victor Martinez said following the 7-1 loss to the Twins. “They pay a lot of money. They can be upset. But nobody wants to win more than us.”tmpplchld But bringing Ausmus back in a one-year, win-or-else situation doesn’t immediately convey that sentiment. It comes across as a concession. And since nobody has heard anything from the Ilitches short of brief, scripted statements or second-party recollections the last two months, it’s awfully hard believing anything different.tmpplchld ___tmpplchld ABOUT THE WRITERtmpplchld Drew Sharp is a writer for the Detroit Free Press.tmpplchld ___tmpplchld (c)2015 Detroit Free Presstmpplchld Visit Detroit Free Press at www.freep.comtmpplchld Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.tmpplchld

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