HOUSTON, TX – OCTOBER 29: Manager AJ Hinch #14 of the Houston Astros looks on during batting … [+] practice prior to Game 6 of the 2019 World Series between the Washington Nationals and the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park on Tuesday, October 29, 2019 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Alex Trautwig/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
MLB Photos via Getty Images
When Ron Gardenhire decided to retire before the 2020 season was completed, it was widely believed that his departure would usher in a new era of Detroit Tigers baseball. Then, the Detroit Tigers hired A.J. Hinch as their new manager and turned over a majority of their Major League coaching staff. This seemed to confirm that a new day had dawned in Detroit. Oddly enough, the sun that was rising on the new era in Detroit remains suspended on the horizon and the teams transition into the next phase of its rebuild seems to be stuck in neutral.
This is a bad sign. Once again Detroit Tigers General Manager Al Avila has publicly stated that he will be patient in regards to his offseason spending. People who follow the Tigers know that this is code for, we are fully prepared to disappoint our fanbase this offseason.
Last offseason the Tigers gave out one year deals headlined by C.J. Cron, Jonathan Schoop and Austin Romine. Much like 2019, the Tigers lack of depth was exposed following an injury to C.J. Cron and subsequent injuries to various other members of their starting nine. This caused the team to plummet after a surprisingly good start to the COVID shortened 2020 season.
If the same front office approach is applied to this offseason as the past two offseasons, it is highly likely that the Tigers may be well positioned for another catastrophic season.
As much as injuries can be attributed to bad luck, a teams ability to compete despite injuries is a testament to organizational depth. This is something the Tigers do not have.
Although four of the Tigers top 10 prospects per MLBs pipeline are position players, only two of them are Major League ready prospects. Isaac Paredes and Daz Cameron made their debuts in 2020, but Isaac Paredes is the only one of those two prospects to maintain a relatively stable trajectory throughout his professional career.
The latter-Daz Cameron- struggled in his Major League debut last season and seemed to help solidify the opinions of his doubters as his prospect stock has steadily declined since entering the professional ranks.
The one year deals that the Detroit Tigers seem to be most comfortable with are band-aids. While the Tigers recent drafts have helped heal the wounds of bad deals past, their recovery and rebuild is still far from a guaranteed success.
Cosmetically, having a nice farm system ranking gives the appearance that these wounds are healing, there is no promise that the franchise is healing or that these wounds can not become reinfected.
This puts A.J. Hinch in a precarious position. After serving his year long suspension for his involvement in the Houston Astros cheating scandal, the pressure is on A.J. Hinch to prove that he is an elite tactician and leader.
In an era where more and more managers are simply extensions of the front office and analytics departments; what happens to a manager when these two facets of team operations have proven to be inept thus far? Or what happens when the analytics department seems to be diametrically opposed to the values of the front office?
In the short term, what happens is your team loses…a lot. For A.J. Hinch, this could be troublesome. For better or worse, with the Houston Astros there was a synchronous relationship from the top of the chain of command down to the on field manager. In Detroit, there does not seem to be any cohesive philosophical middle ground between the various branches of Tiger government. No checks. No balances.
In 2021, A.J. Hinch is in a similar position to where San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler was in 2020. He is a manager getting possibly his last chance at running a big league club. This makes him much more vulnerable, but Hinch and Kapler alike have to be much more willing to subvert themselves to the whim of their front offices. All of the teams successes and failures will fall more squarely on the teams managers shoulders as they are the forward facing representatives of the organization.
In order to be a manager again, it is an interesting thought exercise to posit that Gabe Kapler was afforded another opportunity because he was more willing to toe the company line than other candidates. A.J. Hinch might be in the exact same position. Unfortunately for Hinch, it appears San Francisco Giants President Farhan Zaidi seems to have a much better idea on how to build a competitive team with more depth than Tigers General Manager Al Avila does.
Time will tell if A.J. Hinch can get it done with the Detroit Tigers. However, if he falls short of expectations, Hinch may be the one to shoulder the blame and there is a good chance that Al Avila outlasts A.J. Hinch in Detroit.read more
The Detroit Tigers Have The Perfect Scapegoat In A.J. Hinch
