The mistake in letting Jim Leyland's situation drag on
I received interesting notes and calls from readers and friends six weeks ago when it was suggested that the Tigers get on with the necessary business of extending Jim Leyland's contract as Tigers manager.
The feedback was mixed, although mostly it supported bringing back Leyland for 2010.
The best opposing comment came from a friend who said it would be a mistake to extend Leyland in May -- that there was no upside to making a decision so soon when that decision could easily wait.
My feeling was this: If you wait, it only risks making a non-issue an issue. If you wait, you invite inevitable questions as to why you're deliberating. If you wait, you risk bringing even a slight element of negative energy into a clubhouse that had been functioning without any sign of such.
Sure enough, the issue of Leyland and 2010 has been creeping steadily into conversation.
Now, I'm getting almost daily inquiries from people who wonder what the hold-up is all about.
And so there you have it: Something that should not have been a concern, or a distraction, or even a curiosity at this stage of the season, has become just that.
Why are the Tigers waiting?
Since they're not talking or providing so much as a clue, I'll speculate:
Leyland makes a lot of money: $4 million per year. That's not as much as Brandon Lyon makes, but it's a big paycheck for a manager. You could hire a new skipper for a fraction of that, although I doubt salary, per se, is a hang-up.
I suspect Leyland and his boss, Tigers president and general manager Dave Dombrowski, have had better days. There isn't anything concrete to offer as proof there. I simply feel it -- feel it deeply, and for these reasons:
The Tigers roster has a treacherous number of holes and dead spots. Some players aren't capable of filling the voids left by injuries to Carlos Guillen and Jeremy Bonderman, which isn't anything new. Lots of clubs get hit with sudden sinkholes created by injuries.
But when you throw in players who are being retained mostly because they have big contracts -- Dontrelle Willis and Nate Robertson come to mind -- you end up with a frustrated manager.
Especially if that manager isn't signed beyond this season.
If I were Dombrowski, or his boss, Tigers owner Mike Ilitch, I'd handle the things I could control as quickly as possible. And one of those items of business within their discretion is extending Leyland.
If they think there's a better manager out there, then fine, make the necessary move. Make it now, even. But I wonder who that person would be, or how it would be determined that such a man would be any more successful, or any better received, by his players?
Something isn't right here. And I worry about what's not right. I sense frustration. I sense tension. I sense that this situation isn't happening for a lot of bad reasons.
Ilitch and Dombrowski should the move. One way or another. It simply grows as an issue each day for a ballteam that needs to be concerned with other matters.
