In a move that seemingly came out of nowhere, Tigers owner Mike Ilitch has announced today that the team has released Dave Dombrowski from his contract so he can pursue other opportunities elsewhere. Assistant GM Al Avila was promoted to replace him as General Manager of the team, effective immediately.

Dombrowski wasn’t under contract past this year, so there have been rumors that he could take a job with another organization this winter, but it’s a bit surprising to see the Tigers let him go now. One could potentially connect the dots with Larry Lucchino being removed from the Red Sox CEO role yesterday — perhaps Dombrowski suggested to Ilitch that he’d like to interview for that job, and Ilitch decided to let him go in order to do so — but the released statement makes it sound like this was more Ilitch’s decision than Dombrowski’s.

Clearly, Dombrowski has been quite successful in Detroit, even though the 2015 season didn’t go as the team had hoped, and he’ll be in high demand this winter. The Blue Jays are still looking for a long-term CEO replacement for the retiring Paul Beeston, and he’d potentially be a fit in Anaheim as well, where the front office is still under construction after Jerry Dipoto resigned last month. If the Mariners or Brewers decide to turn over their baseball operations departments, I’d expect both would be highly interested in Dombrowski as well.

There’s a press conference in half an hour, and perhaps there the Tigers will clarify whether this was done now because the team already knew Dombrowski was leaving this winter anyway, or whether he was shown the door because of the team’s failures on the field this year. Either way, I’d expect Dombrowski will become one of the most coveted free agents out there, and will probably have his pick of which organization he wants to run next.