Tigers GM Avila: 'Ownership has not told me to dump salary'

The Detroit Tigers' offseason has been anything but exciting, as the franchise has only added a backup catcher in Alex Avila and traded away outfielder Cameron Maybin, while signing a number of players to minor-league deals.

It was presumed the Tigers were doing this while looking for ways to limit or even shed payroll after comments from general manager Al Avila indicated as such in November, but that doesn't appear to be the case.

Avila appeared on MLB Network on Tuesday and stated he was never asked to get rid of salary by ownership.

"Frankly, ownership has not told me to dump salary," he said, according to MLB.com's Jason Beck. "Basically they asked me: If you can make a good baseball trade, that's great."

Avila's words come two months after he said nearly the opposite, which created speculation about the futures of Justin Verlander, Miguel Cabrera, J.D. Martinez, Ian Kinsler, and Victor Martinez in Tigers uniforms.

"The goal is to shed payroll and get better. Now, how do you do that? It may not all be accomplished in one shot," Avila told Jon Paul Morosi from MLB.com back in November. "It's a process. I'm going to keep on saying that. It's not a process you do in three months. It's one you do by changing the philosophy and way you go about it moving forward - as opposed to every year going out and signing big-time free agents and trading away your prospects.

"Are there going to be good, viable trades out there? We will find out. If there are not, we will wait ... I think there's going to be interest in several of our players. I do. It's just a matter of where we go with those talks."

Detroit has missed the playoffs in two consecutive seasons after winning four consecutive division titles, but is forced to compete with the 2016 American League champion Cleveland Indians, who recently upgraded their roster by inking slugger Edwin Encarnacion to a three-year deal.

The Tigers currently have the second-highest payroll in baseball behind the Los Angeles Dodgers, according to spotrac.