DETROIT — The Detroit Tigers have signed manager A.J. Hinch to a contract extension, president of baseball operations Scott Harris announced Monday.
Hinch has a 394-416 record after five seasons in Detroit. The Tigers are coming off back-to-back playoff berths, their 2025 season recently ending in a 15-inning Game 5 loss to the Seattle Mariners in the American League Division Series.
Hinch signed with the Tigers in 2020 in the wake of a one-year suspension stemming from the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal. Hinch’s initial deal was believed to run through 2025, and he previously received a “long-term” extension of unknown length after the 2023 season, which was Harris’ first as president of baseball operations.
The terms and length of Hinch’s new deal are also unknown. But it is worth noting Hinch signed his previous extension before Craig Counsell (five years, $40 million) and Alex Cora (three years, $21.75 million) signed lucrative, record-breaking deals for MLB managers. Hinch is regarded as one of the sport’s best tactical managers and has played a central role in building the organization over the past five years.
The Tigers do not disclose contract details for coaches and executives.
The “fire Hinch” thing was always dumb to me. Our roster wasn’t anywhere close to being good enough to come within a game of the ALCS…yet there we were.
He makes some questionable decisions like all managers do but he is a huge reason for much of the success that we have had.
Like football, I feel the best way to build a team for long term success, is through the draft. Harris has been outstanding in the area of identifying, obtaining, and developing young talent. It’s the reason I defend him so much.
His other areas of team building leaves a lot to be desired though. The thing is, I’m not sure if that part of it is him making bad choices, or if he is being held back by an owner that is limiting his spending.
Agree with both of you.
I really like what Harris is done throughout the system. The upgrades in infrastructure, development staff, the draft.
The guy is really young and I’m still not sure what to make of his abilities to make trades in offseason or at the deadline. As he mentioned in the press conference no one in Detroit from execs, staff and players had playoff experience prior to the last 14months. They have learned what it will take.
He, never had to deadline deals, and it showed in his error in not trading the SP two deadlines ago. The problem with critiquing deadline deals is not knowing what other teams wanted from Detroit vs what they got from other teams. if they truly wanted a MLB player from the players in Detroit and one of the top five prospects then yea, I’m good with not trading for Suarez.
So, his wheeling and dealing remain the questions for now.
