A.J. Hinch balked at the question. How far away are the Tigers from returning to contention? If Hinch were to say three years, two years, even one year, he'd be giving up on the year at hand. Publicly.
"I don't know how to answer that," Hinch told 97.1 The Ticket before Detroit's season opener.
So he went here instead: "This group of players, I think the city's going to embrace. We need to play competitive baseball much further into the season than we have in my first two years. I don't like conceding anything."
In all reality, the Tigers have a ways to go. Even the most optimistic fans would have to agree. New president of baseball operations Scott Harris is in the early stages of overhauling the roster he inherited from Al Avila and, in his words, "reshaping our offensive identity." Which till take time. "It has to take time," said Harris.
At least it's underway. One of the position players Harris traded for this winter has already made an impact: Matt Vierling, who lifted the Tigers to their first win of the season with his bat and his glove Monday against the Astros. And fellow 26-year-old Nick Maton, who arrived with Vierling from the Phillies in the Gregory Soto trade, should make an impact soon. Meanwhile, former top picks Spencer Torkelson and Riley Greene are off to hot starts.
"I got so much attention on the (game in front of us), the broader question of how far we are away to things that have to happen over a six-month span is just not something I focus on," said Hinch. "I do think this team will resonate with our city. I think fans are going to love throwback players in Vierling and Maton, they're going to like the growth of Greene and Torkelson and there's going to be a lot of excitement around Comerica."
There will certainly be excitement on Thursday for the home opener. How long it lasts is up to the Tigers. Detroit was a top-10 team in attendance from 2012-15, routinely drawing over 35,000 fans a night when the club was ripping off division titles. The crowds at Comerica shrunk over the next several years amid a grueling -- and ongoing -- rebuild. Detroit has been a bottom-10 team in attendance since 2018.
"We've gotta earn back the trust and respect that the teams of yesteryear (had), where we're used to being a playoff-caliber team," said Hinch. "We're trying to get there as fast as possible and we know by playing better baseball, we'll get there faster."
Hinch, a three-time AL pennant winner in Houston, knows what 'better baseball' looks like. So does Vierling, who appeared in 11 playoff games for the Phillies last season, including two starts in the World Series against Hinch's former team. He got a little revenge this week on the Astros, who wound up beating the Phillies in six games, by hitting the go-ahead homer and laying out for a clutch catch to lift the Tigers to a 7-6 win Monday, then collecting two more hits and an RBI in a 6-3 win on Tuesday.
"Vierling is terrific, on the field, around the clubhouse, his approach to the game. He's got tools," Hinch said Wednesday on 97.1 The Ticket. "Still a young guy who needs to develop. Watching him hit right-handed pitching in Houston was encouraging. We know he's going to hit left-handed pitching, he's done it in his career. And then the dynamic defense and some base-running, I think Tigers fans will really enjoy the full package that he can bring to a team."
They'll get their first live look at Vierling and the Tigers on Thursday, with baseball back in Detroit. Whether the crowds come back to Comerica is, in Hinch's words, "a broader question." As Harris might say, it has to take time.
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