The Tigers have found the man to bring their rebuild to fruition.
Detroit has hired A.J. Hinch as its new manager, the club announced Friday.
Hinch, who had a brief stint with the Tigers in 2003 during his playing days, managed the Astros to three division championships, two AL pennants and the 2017 World Series title during a five-year tenure in Houston.
Of course, he was fired by the team and suspended by Major League Baseball for the 2020 season for his role in an elaborate sign-stealing scandal. His bench coach in 2017, Alex Cora, received the same punishment.
Related
Hinch, 46, has claimed he wasn't actively involved in stealing signs -- he's also admitted he should have done more to shut the operation down. Without a winning track record, he probably doesn't get another managerial job in the majors.
But his resume speaks for itself. And it likely spoke loudly to the Tigers, a club trying to turn a loaded farm system into a consistent winner in the majors.
Related
Hinch will take over for Ron Gardenhire, who retired from baseball toward the end of last season due to health concerns. And he'll take over a young team that feels like it's moving in the right direction. The Tigers have the most losses in baseball and three last-place finishes in their division over the past four years, but they're coming off a season in which they promoted a number of highly-touted prospects to the majors.
And they've got more on the way.
Related
Hinch has been in this position before. The team he inherited in Houston in 2015 had the most losses in baseball and three last-place finishes in its division over the prior four years, but it was beginning to graduate a loaded farm system to the bigs. He took the Astros to the playoffs in his first year at the helm, then helped turn them into an AL juggernaut.
"2015 when I first got there was very similar to how the Tigers are now, where there’s some budding talent, there’s some optimism, but there’s also some unknowns as to how to win," Hinch said Monday on the Stoney & Jansen Show. "When you look at turning a team into a winner, it starts with building those blocks."
It's a stretch to think the Tigers will make the playoffs in 2021. Then again, they enter the offseason with more financial flexibility than they've had in years. If they want to make a splash or two in free agency, they can. Hinch figures to help their appeal. So could the prospect of joining a club that's set up for long-term success, whether that begins next year or the year after.
Whereas Gardenhire was hired to oversee the early stages of the rebuild, Avila said his replacement will be the man to finish the job.
"I don’t look at trying to hire a guy for a year or two and then moving on," he said. "You’re trying to hire the guy who you feel can take you as far as you need to go."