It's all a matter of when. There's no 'if' in A.J. Hinch contacting Carlos Correa. There's no 'if' in Hinch and the Tigers contacting Justin Verlander. And while we're talking old friends, would Detroit dare to contact Max Scherzer? GM Al Avila said this week the organization "will be in contact with everybody" in free agency. For the first time in a long time, the Tigers are poised to make some offseason noise. It's all a matter of when. And where and who and how.
"Every name is going to be attached to us because when you talk like this, the expectation is the top of the market," A.J. Hinch told the Stoney & Jansen Show. "That’s not necessarily true, but we need to supplement this roster because we’re not a winning team yet. Who those guys are, how it’s configured, it could be a billion different ways. And it doesn’t just mean shortstop, or in the rotation, or behind the plate. There’s ways to improve this roster creatively.
"But all eyes will be on us this winter as we try to capture this momentum, build off of it and get better, and we’re hopefully going to be a force in the market."
The Tigers are going to add a shortstop. They're going to pursue, in Avila's words, a "good, established starting pitcher." And they're going to look around for a catcher to pair with Eric Haase. It's a good time to be searching for all three, especially if you're Hinch. He can reunite with Correa, Verlander and Martin Maldonado and we can all go home happy. Not that Hinch is naming names.
"Familiarity is always important," he said. "It’s part of the decision process for everybody."
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Indeed, when Hinch was unemployed last winter, it was his friendship with Tigers VP of Player Personnel Scott Bream and his familiarity with Avila that drew him to Detroit. When Chris Fetter was weighing MLB offers as the pitching coach at Michigan, it was his relationship with Hinch that drew him to the Tigers. Relationships matter in recruiting. Coming off a sub-.500 season, relationships are why the Tigers might have any shot at all at landing one of the top shortstops and/or one of the top starting pitchers on the market.
You might remember what Avila said of Hinch when the Tigers introduced him as manager nearly 12 months ago: "There are players who swear by him."
Players also swear by winning. Winning is fun and it helps get you paid, and getting paid is as fun as it gets. The Tigers should be winning soon, but they're not winning yet. That will be the surtax they face in negotiations with Correa or Verlander or anyone else. And that's where Hinch comes into play again. He's universally viewed as one of the best managers in baseball. He proved that again by leading the Tigers to a winning record over the final five months of this season. Sure, relationships matter, but "there are multiple layers to these conversations," said Hinch.
"I think even more important than that, or at least equally important is, where are we going?" he said. "The players that want to come here are going to want to know where we’re going. They’re not going to be (thinking), 'Come and play for this little upstart team that finished third and kind of challenged .500 and fell off at the end.' No, they want to know, can we go to the World Series or not? Can we be a winning franchise or not? Are we going to be a major player in every capacity of their day-to-day job? That, to me, is very important. The personal stuff is going to weigh in, it always does, but that’s just part of the equation."
The Tigers sent a strong message down the stretch. They went 11-6 in September against winning teams, 8-4 against playoff teams. They finished with a winning record against both. In fact, the Tigers were .500 or better against six of the seven playoff teams they faced this season, including 5-2 against the Astros. The only team that got them is the one they're chasing in the division. If good players want to play for good teams, the Tigers played their best baseball at the right time. 77-85 was their final record. 39-36 against winning teams will be the record they pitch this winter.
"First of all, our play should really sell it," said Hinch. "Everybody that we played against this season -- and you can name the names, I’m not going to name them. But there’s people that played against us that complimented what we’re doing, how we’re going about it, the staff we have, the players we have. The arrow’s pointing in the right direction. Again, that’s only part of the conversation, but you gotta convince them by being relevant. You can’t just convince them with words. You gotta back it up with action."
And you back up action by backing up the Brinks. The Tigers don't have to spend "like a drunken sailor" to make a splash, and they don't have to make a splash for any reason other than improving their team. They know as well as anyone that headlines don't win free agency. And free agency doesn't always win next season. In any big deal, the match is what matters the most. There are matches to be made in Detroit, where Hinch and the Tigers are ready to strike.
"We are all in agreement that this is a great foundation, but not a finished product," said Hinch. "Now we have to supplement the talent that we have with some talent from the outside."