Ausmus done talking about hot seat: 'I might get fired'

Brad Ausmus doesn't need to check the standings to know his team's record is chipping away at his future with the Detroit Tigers.

After getting asked over and over again about how he's handling being on the hot seat, he ended the topic once and for all.

“No, you know what, we get it. I’m on the hot seat, I might get fired," he told reporters prior to Monday's game against the Minnesota Twins, according to George Sipple of the Detroit Free Press. "We’re done talking about it. You want to talk about baseball? You want to talk about the Tigers? You want to talk about getting on a winning streak? That’s fine.

"You know, we’re beating a dead horse.”

Unlike Ausmus, though, everyone checks the standings.

The Tigers currently sit 7 1/2 games back of the division-leading Chicago White Sox in the American League Central and after winning the division in 2014, his first year at the helm, it's all gone downhill for Ausmus.

Since then, Detroit is 90-108, and 2-10 in its last 10 games. So when he was asked once again about his job security, the Tigers skipper had enough.

“You trying to bait me into talking about this again and I said I don’t want to,” he said, adding that questions about his job aren't questions about the team. It's just part of the "white noise" coming his way.

“The team is out here working hard,” Ausmus said. “They’re trying to win. They’re going about their business the right way. They care. We just haven’t won recently, but we won yesterday. We’re hoping this is a jumping point.

"This is the point where you can start to build momentum. Only time will tell.”

Aside from the Philadelphia Phillies, the Tigers will only play teams with a record below .500 for the rest of May. How they perform, not what Ausmus says, will be the telling tale.