A year after Detroit’s deadline fire sale, Tigers feel ready to make a run

12:17 PM ET

As the 2015 trade deadline approached, Dave Dombrowski knew his days as Detroit Tigers general manager were numbered. He had a good idea his contract would not be renewed and that he’d soon be looking for work elsewhere. Still, he did not deviate from what he believed was the appropriate course of action.

He didn’t honestly believe Detroit was a playoff team, and so he made the decision to sell.

“In my heart, we weren’t good enough to win at that time,” Dombrowski said during a lengthy dugout session with the media before the Tigers-Red Sox series earlier this week. “And that’s what I ended up expressing.”

Manager Brad Ausmus remembers the chain of events clearly.

Things were not exactly rosy for the Tigers, but they weren’t completely dire, either. They still had David Price at the top of their rotation. Miguel Cabrera was hurt, but was poised to return soon. And former ace Justin Verlander was showing tangible signs of improvement. The team had the inkling that he had turned the proverbial corner, a hunch that would be confirmed in the weeks to come.

When Dombrowski, who had huddled with team brass in Tampa during a midseason series against the Rays to discuss the strategy, informed Ausmus of his decision, the skipper was disappointed, though not altogether surprised.

“I remember exactly where we were — in Tampa, [Verlander] had just beat Chris Archer 2-1. … Dave was running parallel paths before the decision was made — buy or sell — and after that game, I thought, OK, now maybe Ver has pitched a couple good games in a row, maybe we’ll buy,” Ausmus recalled earlier this week. “It was after the game that Dave told me he was going to sell and he explained the reasoning. And logically, it made sense.”

That didn’t make it any easier for Ausmus to digest. Dombrowski invited his manager to a meeting with the baseball operations contingent so he could explain his rationale. Ausmus declined. He had heard what he needed to hear. He didn’t need further detail.

“I think, like pretty much any manager would say, I told him I thought it was a mistake,” Ausmus said. “But, I understood why he was doing it.”

David Price and Cespedes aren’t wearing Tigers uniforms anymore, as both were jettisoned last …

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