The Tigers' 2015 season has not gone according to plan. While many expected them to contend for the AL Central crown, and potentially make another deep run in the playoffs, they're currently in last place. The first casuality of Detroit's lost season was Dave Dombrowski, who despite initial reports, was undoubtedly fired. His recommendation to Mike Illitch that the team needed to sell sealed his fate, and he was sent packing; only to be replaced by his assistant GM, Al Avila.
With Avila now at the helm, and the pressure on to build the Tigers into a winning team again, it seems unlikely that Brad Ausmus will be around to help that happen. Illitch was reportedly weary of "replacing the iconic Jim Leyland with a relative neophyte" and Avila could turn to someone with more managerial experience.
While Avila supported Dombrowski's decision to hire Ausmus, there aren't many people left that are sticking up for the manager."
The voices against have grown stronger as the Tigers have slid. Upon taking the GM job, Avila said only that Ausmus would be kept through the season, telling folks he would be spending the remainder of the year 'evaluating.'"
The Tigers have clearly underperformed this season, but as Heyman notes, "few outside of Detroit will view this season as the fault of Ausmus...It is worth mentioning that Ausmus has been saddled with bullpen issues two years running." The fault cannot solely rest with him, as he can only work with the players he's given, but as Catherine Slonksnis detailed, there have been more than a few instances in which Ausmus was asleep at the switch.
If he does get fired, he likely wouldn't be unemployed for long, as one rival GM said that "he'd have to wait about eight minutes for another job". It remains to be seen what course of action Avila will ultimately take, but it seems incredibly unlikely that Detroit's future will include Ausmus.