Detroit Tigers Manager Jim Leyland Retires

Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland announced October 21st that he was retiring from managing but would remain with the club in another capacity.  The announcement came a few days after the Tigers lost to the Boston Red Sox in the American League Championship Series.  Last year, the Tigers made it to the World Series before losing four straight to the San Francisco Giants.

Leyland said he made the decision in September, implying that the disappointing end to the season had nothing to do with his retirement.  We agree with that.  Leyland won two American League pennants in his eight years managing the Tigers, and the club made the post season two other times.  He has a record of 700-597 with Detroit.  He won a World Series back in 1997 when he managed the Florida Marlins, and won three National League East titles in the early 1990’s with the Pittsburgh Pirates, the last post season appearances for that club until this year.  So this has nothing to do with his record but everything to do with his age, which is 68. There have been older major league managers, but there’s a lot of pressure managing a big league club, so we can understand why he’d like to step down.

This will be a highly coveted vacancy, as whoever is hired to manage will have one to the best teams in the majors and won’t have to go through a rebuilding period.  That also means the new manager will be expected to win immediately.