Not too long ago, A.J. Hinch was a fixture of October baseball. His face and his teams were synonymous with the playoffs. He managed the Astros deep into the postseason three straight years from 2017-19, winning a World Series title and two AL pennants. When the playoffs start Friday night, Hinch will be watching from home for the third season in a row.
"I know what jealousy feels like," he said Friday morning.
2022 was a disaster for the Tigers, from the very start. In a season where they were supposed to take a step forward, they took a significant step back. They were 10 games below .500 by May, 20 games below .500 by July and 30 games below .500 by August, which is exactly where they finished: 66-96. They were the worst team Hinch has ever managed over the course of a full season.
“We put ourselves there, so now it’s time to get back to work," said Hinch. "It doesn’t demoralize me, it doesn’t make me less motivated. It makes me just want to find solutions. We can all identify the problems, we can all evaluate what improvements need to be made, but the solutions are really the key.”
The Tigers’ drastic underperformance led to the midseason firing of GM Al Avila, which was a couple years overdue. Their historically bad offense led to the firing of hitting coach Scott Coolbaugh, which was arguably a few months overdue. This falls into the category of identifying problems. The Tigers are counting on Hinch and new president of baseball operations Scott Harris to find the solutions.
Neither one is wasting time.
“We are synched-up on so many levels," said Hinch. "He’s been really busy and it’s been very energizing for me to see that from my chair and know how he’s trying to impact the organization in a quick amount of time.”
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Hinch, 48, glows when he talks about Harris. They are cut from the same intellectual cloth, Hinch a product of Stanford and a former front office exec, Harris a product of UCLA, Columbia and Northwestern (OK, we get it) and a disciple of Theo Epstein. With Avila in charge, it felt like the Tigers were playing from behind. Harris, 34, can help them start closing the gap.
“It’s been an incredible partnership in the early stages of this relationship,” said Hinch. “I’m super happy. He’s really good.”
Hinch didn’t know much about Harris before the Tigers began interviewing him. When Hinch reached out to mutual contacts for feedback, he said they told him “how impressed I was going to be with how his mind works.” At first, he wasn't quite sure what that meant. He's beginning to understand.
“The way he thinks about different things, the way he responds to different things, the way he articulates his reactions, he’s a very intellectually curious person. I guess that should come as expected given his background and who he’s worked for, but his intellectual curiosity is an 80 on a scouting scale," said Hinch. "It is one of the best attributes that I’ve seen so far.”
Together, Harris and Hinch have a roster to fix. Really, they have an organization to fix, but they’ll be graded on the product in Detroit. The product has to improve next season. There is no way around it. The Tigers should not be conflated with baseball aristocracy like the Cardinals and the Braves, but they are a proud franchise. They deserve better than a seventh straight losing season.
The last time the Tigers were this bad for this long, under the ownership of the late Mike Ilitch, it spawned one of the best eras of baseball in Detroit: a nine-year stretch that featured seven winning seasons, five playoff berths, four division titles and two AL pennants. It ended in 2014, and the Tigers haven’t been back to the playoffs since. It’s tied for the longest playoff drought in the bigs.
“I don’t like losing, but that’s where we’re at right now,” said Hinch. “It doesn’t mean that’s where we have to be.”
The longest playoff drought used to belong to the Mariners. They snapped it last week after 21 years – it could always be worse! – and hosted the Tigers a few days later to close out the season. Before one of the games, Hinch stood behind the batting cage and had a coffee with Seattle manager Scott Servais, who’s headed to the playoffs for the first time at age 55. Servais didn’t need the extra caffeine. Hinch could sense his excitement.
For Hinch, missing out on October is extra fuel.
“To me, if you’re not aspiring to be on TV today, if you’re not motivated to be playing and jealous that you’re not," he said, "you’re in the wrong business.”
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