Detroit Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire stands in the dugout before the team’s baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates in Pittsburgh, Tuesday, June 18, 2019. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)AP
Gardenhire informed general manager Al Avila of his decision Saturday afternoon. He said he had planned to retire at the end of the season, but had been feeling unwell of late.
“I don’t want to feel like I’m running out on anybody but I know I have to take care of myself, because the way I’ve been feeling lately just isn’t right,” Gardenhire said.
Bench coach Lloyd McClendon will manage the team for the remainder of the season, beginning with Saturday night’s game against the Cleveland Indians at Comerica Park.
Gardenhire, who will turn 63 next month, had a 132-241 record in his three-year tenure with the Tigers and will retire with 1,200 career wins, fifth-most among active managers and 46th in baseball history. He managed the Minnesota Twins from 2002-2014 and is one of 25 managers in history with more than 1,000 wins with a single team.
Avila said Gardenhire « had one of the best managerial careers in baseball history…His positive impact on our young players will be felt for years to come.”
Gardenhire missed several games with an illness earlier this month in Minnesota. He also said the stress of the job had started to wear on him.
He said he didn’t come to the ballpark on Saturday planning to retire immediately. But after talking with Avila, he decided to step away now, rather than manage the final week of the season.
“As we went along, we talked about the way I’d been feeling since I had that bout of food poisoning in Minnesota and the stomach problems and then the tension, the stress that goes along with this job,” Gardenhire said. “I told Al, ‘I’ll step out right now.’ It’s been wonderful here, but I also know I have to take care of myself. When you come to the ballpark and you’re stressed out and your hands are shaking, that’s not fun. I’ve got grandbabies, I’ve got kids, and my wife. I’m going to step back and take care of myself and try to get healthy and get back to the norm.”
Gardenhire’s three-year contract was set to expire at the end of this season. Avila said it was too early to talk about his replacement.
Tigers chairman Christopher Ilitch said in a statement that Gardenhire had helped lead the team through a challenging period since being hired to replace Brad Ausmus following the 2017 season.
“He has done a great job in shaping the future successes I know our organization will see,” Ilitch said.
Gardenhire will always be closely linked to the Twins, where he spent more than a decade as a coach under longtime manager Tom Kelly before taking over the top job in 2002. But he said he’ll always have fond memories of his three years in Detroit.
“Wearing this uniform has been really special,” he said. “The history of this uniform and this team here is second to none. Getting a chance to manage the Detroit Tigers has been nothing but special.”
The Tigers struggled in each of Gardenhire’s three seasons, but that was largely expected. The Tigers unloaded big stars like J.D. Martinez and Justin Verlander during the summer of 2017, plunging headlong into the rebuilding process.
“I knew going in that this was going to be a rebuild and there were going to be some tough times,” Gardenhire said. “The teams that we’ve had here didn’t have all the talent that other teams had, but we played and really got after it. And that’s a credit to my coaching staff and how much that it meant to those players. They played hard, they gave everything they had. Sure, the outcomes weren’t great, but through it all we had a great clubhouse, every year that I was here, and that’s important. We did the best we could.”
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