You could make the case that Ron Gardenhire wasn’t the right man for the job three years ago, when Tigers general manager Al Avila tabbed him as his first managerial hire. And to be honest, many of us did.
But you can’t argue this now, in hindsight: He was the right human for the job. And on a surreal weekend at Comerica Park, where Gardenhire’s abrupt retirement announcement left everyone reeling, that came through loud and clear.
“Obviously, we’re going to miss him,” said pitcher Daniel Norris, one of the longest-tenured Tigers in the clubhouse. “He’s one of my favorite humans I’ve ever been around. Not even with just baseball or as a manager. He’s just such a joy.”
That proved essential on an almost-daily basis here in Detroit, because there wasn’t much joy to be found in this version of Tigers baseball, as the losses piled up and the crowds dwindled to nothing, literally. Even serving as the foreman of a demolition project, Gardenhire somehow found a way to make it feel constructive.
“Obviously, he took us through the toughest two years of the transition,” Avila said. “This year, this third season is probably as tough as any, because of the pandemic. … The stress level was through the roof.”
And yet you wouldn’t have known it from the way Gardenhire acted for most of this bizarre, bottled-up baseball season. His players certainly didn’t. Some might’ve had an inkling that their manager planned to retire after the season, and certainly the coaching staff sensed it. But none were expecting what they heard last Saturday afternoon when Avila and Gardenhire entered the clubhouse for a brief team meeting after batting practice.
“I was completely shocked,” said Spencer Turnbull, one of the bright spots in the Tigers’ starting rotation and a quirky talent who credits Gardenhire’s faith in him for much of his success this summer. “I had no idea. So it was a wave of emotions to say the least.”
Perfect timing, tone
Learning to ride those waves is how one survives, or even thrives, in Major League Baseball, where the days are long and the season is longer. When you’re losing 100-plus games, though, it can feel interminable.
“But what made him so good for us and what we were going through with the rebuild and the last few years that we’ve endured together – because it wasn’t easy – was just how personable he was,” Norris said. “He was always just so positive. Of course he’d be upset when we lost. But I can think of a bunch of times when he would come in after a loss and give us a 10-second pep talk and that’s all we needed. We don’t need to be sat down and yelled at or told what we did wrong. And we also didn’t need to be left alone. It was like he knew exactly what to say at the right times. … His timing was perfect with that, and also the tone that he had with it.”
In a way, his timing is pretty good now, too, though the overriding emotion this weekend was one of concern. And a fervent hope the health issues Gardenhire cited in exiting now, rather than waiting another week until the end of the season, aren’t too serious. No one would’ve blamed Gardenhire – a cancer survivor with diabetes – for opting out of this abbreviated season given the COVID-19 concerns. And no one was blaming him for leaving now, even if that’s what the manager seemed most concerned about in an emotional goodbye to his team Saturday, telling them, “I hope and pray that you guys don’t think I’m walking out on you.”
“And, I mean, for obvious reasons, we didn’t think that — it didn’t even cross anybody’s mind,” Norris said. “But that’s just a testament to who he is as a person.”
Surely, it’s also a trait Avila and his boss, Tigers owner Chris Ilitch, will be looking for as they begin the search for his successor. Selflessness is always a good place to start in a leader. But they’re going to need something more if they’re truly serious about this player-development push that Ilitch insists the Tigers are “laser-focused on” in this ongoing rebuild.
They’ll need a manager who doesn’t just grudgingly accept the analytics piece of this puzzle, as Gardenhire did — shifting hard from his old-school mentality the last couple years — but rather pushes for more. Someone who can do more than integrate it into the game-planning, synthesizing all that information and helping deliver it to players in a meaningful way. Someone who can speak the same language as the players, in more ways than one, because today’s MLB prospects have grown up on Driveline and Rapsodo, understanding spin rates and launch angle, using smart cages and K-vests.
Tough job ahead
There’s also an opportunity here to think out the box and go outside Avila’s comfort zone, past a known commodity like Lloyd McClendon or Mike Redmond – he was on Avila’s short list in 2017 – or even a friendly, familiar face like Don Kelly, a Tigers’ fan favorite. Maybe outside ownership’s comfort zone as well, if it means taking a leap of faith — and a few lumps in the public-relations realm — by giving a second chance to a manager like A.J. Hinch or Alex Cora, both of whom are serving MLB suspensions this year as a result of the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal.
Because while Gardenhire helped bridge the gap these last few years, there’s still plenty of work to do before this Tigers team is ready to contend. (And before we find out if Ilitch is truly willing to spend.) Avila & Co. keep preaching patience, and that’s a plus for whoever is on-deck, because there’s no fear that expectations will outpace the reality just yet.
It’s also an argument for settling on a candidate who might lack managerial experience at the major-league level but could grow along with this young corps that’s just beginning to arrive in Detroit. Much like Rick Renteria has done with the White Sox, a team the Tigers are going to be chasing – along with the Twins and Indians — for the foreseeable future in the A.L. Central.
Along those lines, Astros bench coach Joe Estrada, who was up for the Cubs job last winter, or Pedro Grifol, a finalist for the Giants’ vacancy, would make a lot of sense here. But there are many others, obviously.
Lots of time, too, for Avila to get this one right, well aware this next hire should be his last. And understanding that just because Gardenhire made the hard days a little easier to bear these past few years, the toughest part of the rebuild lies ahead.