Dave Dombrowski should have options for 2016

Detroit — What’s next?

Dave Dombrowski is plenty used to that very question, after a season, after a blockbuster trade, after a significant free-agent signing.

Now, what’s next for Dombrowski, himself, after he was fired earlier this week following 14 seasons as the president and general manager of the Tigers?

Dombrowski has maintained almost completely uninterrupted employment in Major League Baseball since 1978, outside of a brief break following his only other firing, in 1986, by then-White Sox GM Ken “Hawk” Harrelson.

And he plans to continue working in the game he fell in love with when he was a kid growing up in Chicago.

This offseason’s free-agent market will include plenty of big names, including two — David Price and Yoenis Cespedes — that Dombrowski traded in the final act of his Tigers’ tenure, and now industry insiders are buzzing about the possibilities for another hired gun, Dombrowski.

Odds are strong he will end up in a front office for 2016, and several big-market, big-spending teams have openings he’s already being tied to.

The scenario that seems to gaining the most traction is with the Blue Jays, who spent last winter trying to replace team president Paul Beeston with Dan Duquette, but Orioles owner Peter Angelos steadfastly refused to let Duquette out of his contract as general manager with the team. So the Blue Jays kept Beeston for this year, letting it be known it would be his last.

Interestingly, it was those Blue Jays who acquired Price from the Tigers for three pitching prospects ahead of last week’s trade deadline.

The Blue Jays would make sense for a few reasons, one being they have a presidency opening. Dombrowski has been both president and GM of the Tigers since April 2002, six months after arriving in Detroit, after firing GM Randy Smith six games — and six losses — into the season.

It’d be doubtful Dombrowski would be interested in slide back into “just” a GM role, if he can help it.

The Blue Jays also are big spenders, with an owner in Edward Rogers who, like Mike Ilitch, is worth billions. Dombrowski has done very well with teams that are willing to outspend most of the competition, winning a World Series with the Marlins (before the fire sale) and two AL pennants with the Tigers.

Dombrowski, 59, going to Toronto surely would leave a bitter taste in Ilitch’s mouth, especially after Ilitch’s Red Wings lost coach Mike Babcock to the Maple Leafs earlier this year.

Also, keep an eye on the Red Sox, who saw president and CEO Larry Lucchino announce his resignation on Saturday, oddly the same day Ilitch called Al Avila to tell him he’d be taking Dombrowski’s job in short order. Lucchino, like Dombrowski, spent 14 years in his current role. Dombrowski was the Marlins GM when John Henry was the owner; Henry now owns the Red Sox.

No question, then, they’ll at least have a discussion, but many in baseball don’t see this as a great fit, given the Red Sox place atop the mountain of believers in sabermetrics — Bill James is even on the payroll — and Dombrowski’s more traditional views in analyzing a player’s value.

The other big opening is as Angels general manager, as Bill Stoneman is just serving out the rest of this season following the early season resignation of Jerry DiPoto. Here’s another team that loves to spend money on big stars, an area where Dombrowski is well-versed.

But there are obstacles here, too. For starters, there are several people ranked above the GM in the Angels’ pecking order, and that could be a serious adjustment for Dombrowski, who’s long been used to reporting directly to ownership. Second, owner Arte Moreno has a history of supporting manager Mike Scioscia, carte blanche, when it comes to any disputes, and it’s led to serious infighting, more recently with DiPoto’s resignation.

The Orioles could key in on Dombrowski if the Blue Jays decide they want to make one more run at Duquette; the Mariners might finally be ready to pull the plug on Jack Zduriencik; White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf might like the idea of bringing Dombrowski full circle, and might have motivation to make such a change if his ballclub misses the playoffs after OKing a wild offseason shopping spree; and Dombrowski’s old friend Tony La Russa, now president of the Diamondbacks, could test the waters, though La Russa probably wouldn’t do that to new GM Dave Stewart.

Major League Baseball could come calling, too, and perhaps create a position in the New York offices, as it did for Joe Torre. Dombrowski is an ambassador of the game with lots of ideas for improvement, a big reason he was thought to be the alternative candidate to Rob Manfred, who ended up replacing Bud Selig as commissioner.

Just don’t expect Dombrowski to go the television route, even if just as a bridge to his next job in a baseball front office. Dombrowski is among the most guarded men in the game, to the point where in Detroit, media leaks rarely happened, for fear of job dismissals. So he’s not likely to go on TV and share behind-the-scenes insights on any hot topic of the day.

Wherever Dombrowski ends up, he can expect some big money, probably far greater than the $3 million he was making with the Tigers. Given his track record — he turned downtrodden franchises in Montreal, Miami and Detroit into winners in relatively short order — he could be looking at a compensation package not far from the five-year, $35 million the Dodgers gave Andrew Friedman.

tpaul@detroitnews.com

twitter.com/tonypaul1984