Longtime catcher Alex Avila, now retired, says Detroit Tigers ‘will always be my team’

Washington Nationals manager Dave Martinez put the 13-year MLB veteran, who spent eight seasons with the Detroit Tigers, into the starting lineup for the 2021 season finale. He caught Joan Adon, a 23-year-old prospect from the Dominican Republic making his MLB debut.

In the clubhouse, Martinez asked Avila to give a pre-game speech to his teammates.

“That was kind of tough,” Avila said.

Avila’s father, Tigers general manager Al Avila, and his mother, Yamile, were among the 33,986 fans in attendance Oct. 3 at Nationals Park. After smacking a two-run double in the fifth inning, Avila was removed from the game in the ninth, took a curtain call and received a standing ovation from the crowd.

“It was kind of sad,” Al Avila said, “but at the same time, you had that feeling of thankfulness that he had that opportunity and was able to play for 13 years. That’s a long time.”

PLAY BALL: Tigers spring training preview: 10 things to watch as camp begins

KIDS PLAY: Tigers’ Spencer Torkelson, Riley Greene among non-roster invitees to spring training

Avila, who turned 35 in January, didn’t want to end his career following the 2020 season, cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic. He signed with the Nationals as a backup for 2021. Halfway through the year, his “internal discussions” led to a final decision about his future.

The left-handed hitting catcher finished his 13 seasons with a .233 batting average, 105 home runs and a 14.5% walk rate in 1,052 games for the Tigers (2009-2015, 2017), Chicago White Sox (2016), Chicago Cubs (2017), Arizona Diamondbacks (2018-19), Minnesota Twins (2020) and Nationals (2021).

Avila caught 929 games in his career, a testament to his leadership, strong relationships with his pitchers, defensive instincts and game-calling. He also played in 36 postseason games, hitting .153 with three homers.

“It just so happened that I was able to play long enough and get to the point in my career where I was able to make that decision on my own,” Avila said. “I felt like I had nothing left physically to give. A lot of guys don’t get to that point. I feel lucky enough to do that.”

For 72.2% of his MLB career, Avila was a Tiger.

He played 760 games for the Tigers over eight seasons. During this time, he worked extensively with two pitchers — Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer — projected to enter the Hall of Fame.

“I love Alex to death,” Verlander said. “He’s a teammate of mine I stay in touch with quite often. He put in a lot of work. Catchers put in just as much work as pitchers. We had a great working relationship, where I trusted the fingers he put down. If I wasn’t very confident about what pitch I wanted to throw, I would lean on Alex, ask him and rely on him.”

MUST-SEE J.V.: Inside Verlander’s 2011 MVP season & his thoughts on a reunion with Tigers

Avila appeared in 34 postseason games for the Tigers, the most for a catcher in franchise history.

“That organization means everything to me,” Avila said. “The Tigers will always be my team, having gone through all those experiences, from getting drafted to making my debut to catching some of the best teams that we had over our run. I made tremendous friendships. I played for a future Hall of Fame manager (Jim Leyland) that I’d run through a wall for. To me, Detroit means everything. I loved my time there.”

Jim Leyland ‘always had my back’

The Tigers drafted Avila in 2008, taking him in the fifth round out of Alabama.

His father, Al, was an assistant general manager at the time. He didn’t want to bring his son into the organization and suggested the Tigers pick someone else. The scouting department under then-general manager Dave Dombrowski believed Alex was the best player available.

Just like that, Alex and Al teamed up.

“I gave my reasons,” Al said, 14 years later. “I said, ‘I don’t want to take him. I don’t want people to think this is a charity thing. People are going to think we took him as a favor.’ This is a conversation we were having in private — me, (then-vice president of amateur scouting) David Chadd, Dave Dombrowski and a couple of our cross-checkers — in the bathroom, away from the bigger room. And David said, ‘Look, if we don’t take him, we’re not taking the best player available.’ … Dave gave (Chadd) the opportunity to make the pick, and he did. He took him.”

“I was like, screw that,” Alex said. “I’ll show him that it doesn’t matter.”

Avila made his MLB debut in August 2009, after hitting .264 with 12 home runs in 93 games for Double-A Erie. He credits Leyland, the Tigers’ manager from 2016-13, for his first opportunity.

“I mean, that was all Jim wanting me in the big leagues because I could hit,” Avila said. “Gerald Laird was the catcher. Gerald was struggling with the bat a little bit but was doing a great job behind the plate, so he thought I could be a good complement with a little offense.

“He always had my back. He was always in my corner. Not to say he wasn’t tough, because he was tough on me. I think he saw the potential that I could have a good career in the big leagues. I’ll forever be grateful for Jim Leyland. He’s someone I love dearly.”

Avila took over as the full-time starter in 2011, the beginning of the Tigers’ four-year reign over the American League Central.

That year, he hit .295 with 19 homers in 141 games.

“We had aspirations to win and get to the playoffs and win a World Series,” Avila said. “I felt the pressure like, I better start going and showing I belong here. Because if not, they’re going to replace me pretty quick in order to get someone that can help them win.”

Cy Young winners Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer

On May 7, 2011, Avila caught Verlander’s second-career no-hitter at Rogers Centre in Toronto against the Blue Jays.

“After that game, he took off on another level,” Avila said. “There were a few things he was trying to work on mechanically going into that game. His slider was working really well, which was a relatively new pitch for him. It was mainly fastball, curveball, changeup. For some reason, that slider was the pitch that day.

“Once we got to that sixth inning, knowing Justin, I could tell he sensed it. So you’re calling the game to make sure like, I can deal with a walk, but I don’t want to give up a hit here. I remember I had to go to the bathroom in the fifth inning, but I held it the rest of the game because I didn’t want to jinx what was going on.”

In 2011, Verlander finished with a 24-5 record, 2.40 ERA, 57 walks and 250 strikeouts in 251 innings. He won the AL MVP and Cy Young awards, becoming the first starting pitcher to win MVP since Roger Clemens in 1986.

Avila caught 33 of Verlander’s 34 starts.

“They had a great relationship on and off the field,” Al Avila said. “There was a level of trust, as far as game calling and the ability to catch. Justin was a hard guy to catch because his stuff was nasty. … JV, Max, they trusted (Alex) with not only the game calling, but they trusted him in a lot of aspects.”

Executing Verlander’s no-hitter in 2011 was one of many highlights in Avila’s best season. He later made the All-Star Game and beat out New York Yankees catcher Russell Martin for the starting spot in the AL’s lineup. Then, he became the franchise’s first catcher since Ivan ‘Pudge’ Rodriguez in 2004 to win the Silver Slugger award.

Two years later, Scherzer won the 2013 AL Cy Young. He went 21-3 with a 2.90 ERA, 56 walks and 240 strikeouts in 214⅓ innings.

Avila caught 18 of Scherzer’s 32 starts.

“Going into that year, we started playing around with throwing a curveball,” Avila said. “He was very one-dimensional, where it was strictly fastball, changeup to lefties, and then to righties, you’d get the fastball, slider and occasional changeup. It was a little predictable. Once he started throwing the curveball, mixing it in against lefties and righties, it opened it up for him.

“The biggest thing for him, which just took him a while to figure out, was his mechanics. That’s what allows you to be consistent and command your pitches. He was able to figure out what adjustments he needed to make over the course of the game. Once he figured that out, he never lost it.”

With Avila as his catcher, Verlander had a 3.20 ERA and 809 strikeouts in 124 games; Scherzer posted a 3.19 ERA and 751 strikeouts in 113 games.

“Those guys made me better,” Avila said. “Me and Justin have been friends for a long time now. Having caught him so much, we’ve had so many conversations … just as far as not only trying to help him, but he’s never been shy about telling me what he thinks I can do back there, not only for him but for other guys he sees. That was huge for my career.”

Concussions ‘frustrating for me’

The Tigers won the AL Central in four consecutive seasons, from 2011-14, with Avila as the starting catcher. He never repeated his 2011 offensive performance, though, hitting .232 in his other seven seasons with the Tigers.

“As a catcher, you got to check your ego at the door,” Avila said. “It’s all about the guy on the mound.”

Avila prided himself on catching as often as possible, but he paid the price for his toughness. He missed games on the injured list for multiple concussions, a left forearm injury, a left knee injury, a quadriceps strain, calf strains, hamstring strains and back tightness.

“You can say, ‘Oh, yeah, he was so tough,'” Al Avila said. “But for me, it was like, you’re putting your life and your career in peril because you shouldn’t be out there. There was one time he said, ‘I’m fine and ready to go out.’ Then he throws up. So then, MLB started a protocol (in 2011) where you had to be tested before they let you out there. Anytime you have a concussion, you got to wait through the seven-day process.”

The concussions, a product of foul tips off his old-school-style facemask, were a problem early in his career, until he changed his setup behind the plate — and switched to a hockey-style mask — after a concussion ended his season in Game 3 of the 2014 ALDS. He believes he “played through some (brain injuries) and didn’t even realize it.”

“I’m playing for the Mud Hens,” Avila said, thinking back to a concussion-related rehab assignment with Triple-A Toledo in 2013. “I get two innings in, and all of a sudden, I start to feel headaches and dizziness. We were in Louisville, Kentucky.

“I remember being in my hotel room. I was having a hard time shaking this and getting back. I remember thinking to myself, ‘What if this won’t allow me to play anymore?’ I was having those thoughts. I wouldn’t say I was scared it was going to end my career, but it was frustrating for me.”

‘Only regret I have’

Coming back from that concussion, Avila’s .343 batting average in September 2013 made him one of the best hitters down the stretch. The Tigers beat Cleveland by one game for the AL Central title.

He launched his first-career grand slam July 30 off Stephen Strasburg in the sixth inning for a 5-1 win against the Nationals. On Aug. 5, Avila drilled a three-run homer off Cleveland closer Chris Perez in the top of the ninth inning for a 4-2 win.

“I knew Perez had a good four-seam fastball that he liked to ride up in the zone against lefties,” Avila said. “I had to make sure I got on top of the ball to stay level. If I was a little under, I would either swing and miss or foul it off. … The thing I remember most was the reaction from everybody: Prince (Fielder) and Victor (Martinez) going nuts, and Miguel (Cabrera) going nuts. That’s the part that gives me chills.”

The next month, on Sept. 15, Avila crushed two homers, including a go-ahead solo shot in the eighth inning, for a 3-2 win over the Kansas City Royals. In October, the Tigers were eliminated from the playoffs by the Boston Red Sox in the 2013 AL Championship Series.

In Game 2 against the Red Sox, Hall of Famer David Ortiz blasted a game-tying grand slam off Tigers closer Joaquin Benoit in the eighth inning to flip the momentum. “We wanted to start him off with a changeup,” Avila said, “but the ball was left up a little more than the both of us wanted, and David was all over it.”

The Red Sox came away with a 6-5 win to even the series. Boston picked up a 1-0 victory in Game 3, a pitching duel between Verlander and John Lackey. Verlander fired eight innings of one-run ball.

“The turning point of the series wasn’t so much the (Ortiz) home run, but it was the way Lackey pitched against Justin in that game,” Avila said. “We just needed to score a couple runs. It didn’t turn out that way because John pitched a hell of a game. The way Lackey went blow-for-blow with Justin was probably just as big for the Red Sox.”

The Tigers journeyed to the ALCS in 2011, 2012 and 2013, reaching the World Series in 2012. The San Francisco Giants swept the Tigers in the World Series.

“I loved being a part of those teams,” Avila said. “The one regret I have in my career is we weren’t able to win a World Series. We always came up just short in each one of those years. All the guys that were on those teams, we’ve talked about it on several occasions over the course of our careers. … That’s the probably only regret I have, not being able to finish the job.”

After the 2015 season, Avila became a free agent. He suffered a knee injury and lost his starting job to James McCann.

His father, Al, decided not to re-sign him.

Alex always understood the business side of the family sport.

“There’s always the occasional joke that my uncle or someone in the family would make,” Alex said. “We still had Thanksgiving and Christmas together. We would go fishing. Nothing changed on that front because it wasn’t a big deal.”

“When it came to baseball, it was very professional,” Al said. “There was never an issue at all. In that case, I would say it goes both ways. … Now, obviously, having him on the team was really special. It’s a very rare time where you could enjoy a victory on the same team. Those championships, those celebrations were very special for me to be in the clubhouse with him popping champagne.”

‘I wouldn’t rule anything out’

One might think the Avilas had a complicated relationship in the 2017 season, as Al signed Alex to a one-year, $2 million contract in the offseason, only to ship him to the Cubs at the July 31 trade deadline.

But that wasn’t a problem, either. Alex hit .264 with 14 homers in 112 games and played for the Cubs in the postseason, while Al netted the Tigers a pair of infielders: Jeimer Candelario and Isaac Paredes.

“We didn’t talk about that kind of stuff until it made sense, or we felt like it was professional to talk about it,” Avila said. “I’d always let my agent handle that, especially when it came to dealing with Detroit. It would keep as much of that familiarity out of it.

“Once those things came to fruition, as far as me coming back or getting traded, it was like any random Tuesday. We grew up in that.”

There’s no doubt Alex will eventually join his father as a full-time participant in baseball’s non-player world, where many former catchers become managers. Alex provided postseason coverage for MLB Network last fall and will offer more analysis this season.

Sitting in the manager’s chair interests Alex. He has received calls from some teams about his potential employment, but for now, his top priority is “making up some time that I missed” with his wife, Kristina, and his daughters, Avery and Zoey.

“All of that is in the cards for me,” Avila said. “I would like to try to do something where I have the opportunity to be home a little more now. If that evolves into an opportunity with a team, whether that’s coaching or managing, that’s great. I’m definitely going to be involved. I love the game way too much not to be.”

Has Al called to see if his son is available for a job?

Alex laughed.

“We’ve talked about it briefly,” he said. “The both of us know I have opportunities outside of Detroit. I’d like to be a fan of the Tigers for a little bit, but I wouldn’t rule anything out as far as maybe doing something back in Detroit.

“Like I said, that city, that organization means everything to me.”

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold. Read more on the Detroit Tigers and sign up for our Tigers newsletter.