Detroit ? Soon after Alan Trammell was fired Monday morning as manager of the Detroit Tigers, Jim Leyland was en route to the Motor City as the leading candidate to replace him.

Tigers president and general manager Dave Dombrowski planned to have interviewed Juan Samuel and Bruce Fields – both from Trammell’s staff – before discussing the opening with Leyland about 24 hours after the regular season ended.

“I am driven to move quickly because I think there could be a lot of interest in Jim Leyland,” said Dombrowski, adding his search could end as soon as today.

Trammell was fired after three seasons in which he failed to turn around a franchise without a winning record since 1993. The Tigers were expected to be close to .500, if not better, but fell short with a collapse toward the end of the season and finished 71-91.

“I thought we responded to everything well except for this last month,” Trammell said last week. “I think, looking back, it is fair to say that we hit a wall.”

The Tigers were 186-300 in three seasons under Trammell. The MVP the 1984 World Series, who had one year left on his contract, did not return a message seeking comment Monday.

Detroit lost an AL-record 119 games in Trammell’s first season as manager, then improved to 72-90 last year, the biggest turnaround in the AL since Baltimore’s 33-game improvement from 1988 to 1989.

Leyland, a former Florida, Pittsburgh and Colorado manager, said the Tigers called him Monday to set up an interview with him that evening.

“It’s well known that I interviewed with Philadelphia last winter, and I’d like to manage again,” the 60-year-old Leyland said last month.