Phil Nevin's contract not renewed by Tigers, per report

Nevin was given the chance to finish the season but chose to only finish the home portion, the Toledo Blade reports.

By Kurt Mensching@KurtJustKurt Aug 31, 2013, 9:44pm EDT

Triple-A Toledo manager Phil Nevin has been fired by the Detroit Tigers and will not be with the Mud Hens for the final two games of the season. That bit of information was reported by John Wagner of the Toledo Blade.

Updated: Nevin's contract was not renewed, officially, per Wagner. From his blog post:

First, making sure this is clear: Nevin was not fired. Nevin learned his contract would not be renewed for next season, and he was given the opportunity to finish the season. He decided to finish the home portion of the schedule and will return to his family in California Sunday.

... "Discussing this internally, we felt you can't put all the blame on the manager for the things that have happened with the club," [Tigers director of player development Dave] Owen said. "We felt it was time for a different leadership here in Toledo.

Nevin was often mentioned as a possible successor to Tigers manager Jim Leyland. (As was current third base coach Tom Brookens), so the move comes as a bit of a surprise. Without a doubt, the Mud Hens have not been good this year. But a team can only be as good as the players its given, and Detroit's closest minor-league team has been far from loaded with potential.

The Mud Hens won 4-1 on Saturday in their final home game of the year. They are 61-81 on the season, last place in the International League's Western Division. Nevin's record was 191-238 entering play Saturday, per the Blade.

Nevin has managed the Mud Hens since 2011.

Hopefully we'll learn a bit more about the reasoning during the press conference. Check back for more information later.