HOUSTON — There are 37 photos on the wall of the Minute Maid Park press room. Four of them feature Dusty Baker, three show the club’s broadcast teams and one captured Drake donning a Houston Astros jersey.
None of them include A.J. Hinch, the manager who still maintains the highest winning percentage in franchise history. Snapshots of the 2017 World Series title he won are absent from the collage, which somehow still includes José Abreu’s introductory news conference.
The omission is an attempt to forget the cheating scandal that rocked the sport, sullied the championship and cost Hinch his job. But 10 years and one day after Hinch was introduced as manager and five years since Hinch last managed in October, here he was Monday afternoon, back in the postseason, back taking questions in the very same press room where he held his introductory press conference and sat after 16 of his 28 postseason victories.
Hinch’s Detroit Tigers are playing the Astros in an American League Wild Card Series that will pit him against former mentee Joe Espada. The men say they do not want this to be about them. Yet when Hinch sat at his desk after the final game of the regular season and saw an advanced scouting packet for the Astros, the conversation became unavoidable.
“I’m not proud of the story to get here. I’ve owned up to that and I’ll continue to do that. I’m very sorry for how it all went down,” Hinch said on Monday. “But all I had was the next opportunity to try to make it better, to try to do my part to make this happen as fast as possible for the Detroit Tigers. That group that’s in the clubhouse over there waiting to go work out has worked tirelessly to get to feel this feeling — not for me, not to single anybody out — but for our entire group in there.”
In a series full of parallels — be it Jake Rogers facing the organization that traded him for Justin Verlander, be it Verlander’s presence against his former team, be it Detroit boy Hunter Brown blossoming into an ace — none loom as large as Hinch managing against the franchise where he both reached the sport’s apex and became exiled in the wake of scandal.
“He’s a great manager, a great human being,” Astros second baseman Jose Altuve said. “I’m very happy for him and we know we’re going to have to go out and play hard against his team because they have a lot of talent and he knows how to manage it.”
Twelve games under .500 and teetering toward a total disaster during his first season as a major-league manager, Espada needed encouragement. He sent some midnight text messages and made phone calls to men who have mentored him, including the manager he now must oppose.
“He’s had an incredible year guiding this team and it hasn’t always been easy,” Hinch said. “We’ve talked a lot. Not sure how much we’ll talk in the next 72 hours, but there will be a moment — maybe it’s exchanging lineup cards, maybe it’s behind the cage, maybe it’s crossing paths at this media stuff — where I’ll get a chance to congratulate him in person.
“It’s fun to see a good person grow in a job he’s really wanted for a long time.”
Hinch brought Espada to Houston as his bench coach before the 2018 season, but their relationship stretched back two decades. The Oakland A’s selected Espada and Hinch in consecutive rounds of the 1996 draft. The two men were Triple-A teammates on the 1999 Vancouver Canadians and 2000 Sacramento River Cats.
Espada, a scrappy second-round infielder from the University of Mobile, never played past Triple A. Hinch caught across parts of seven major-league seasons. The two men maintained a friendship following their playing days, even as their career paths varied.
Both men are red wine connoisseurs and, because Hinch makes his offseason home in Houston, will occasionally catch up. “We won’t be having any morning coffee or anything like that,” Espada said of this week, but facing Hinch is “actually something I’m looking forward to.”
Bringing in Espada as his bench coach seven years ago created a perfect partnership. Espada had more than a decade of experience as a minor-league instructor or major-league coach. Hinch had no coaching experience when his managerial career began. With an infield that included Altuve, Carlos Correa and Alex Bregman, Hinch knew he needed a specialist to push the superstars in the season following a World Series win.
“He made Carlos better, he made Alex better, he made Jose better and that was a key piece we needed to include in the next bench coach I hired at the time,” Hinch said. “His consistency and his relationships with players was something that was very important to me coming off the success we had. I needed somebody who could push players.”
“It’s the personality, it’s the vibe, it’s the intellect, it’s the baseball IQ, it’s the fearlessness, his consistency, his work ethic. I could go on and on about his qualities. That’s what’s made him a very good major-league manager in short order.”
Similarities in their style are evident. Both men have an uncanny ability to remain composed. The contrition and sincerity Hinch showed in the aftermath of his firing furthered what many in Houston already understood — few things in the sport will faze him. The second-rate state of Detroit’s franchise upon his arrival didn’t, either.
Houston players praised Espada’s even temperament amid a 12-24 start, one that may have torpedoed most rookie managers. Advice he sought from Hinch helped to stabilize things.
“There is no panic,” Espada said. “We have a culture that, when I walk in the office, I see everyone doing their part, I’m like, ‘You know what? We’re in a really good spot.’ Regardless of where we’re at and how we’re playing, if we continue to do things right in how we prepare our players, this is going to turn around. Seeing those things on a daily basis helped me.”
Hinch has watched each of the past five postseasons from home. He still spends his offseasons in The Woodlands, a Houston suburb. A baseball enthusiast, he has tuned into every postseason game, even when it pains him. “It’s miserable,” he joked Monday.
Roughly 30 miles from Minute Maid Park, he followed along as an outsider while the Astros won a World Series in 2022 and remained a constant presence in October under Baker’s guidance.
In contrast, Hinch’s new life centered on managing mostly young, anonymous Tigers teams. His clubs have had spurts of momentum but more instances where the competitive heights seemed far away. The second half of this season, though, may be Hinch’s finest work since he managed a similar young group of Astros to a surprise playoff appearance in 2015.
“I think that’s what he’s worked for,” said Rogers, who was traded as part of the return for Verlander before Houston’s 2017 World Series title. “That’s what he got here for. That’s what he always wanted to work towards, is getting us to the postseason.”
On the night the Tigers clinched their odds-defying playoff berth, Hinch took a moment to himself as his team celebrated on the Comerica Park field. He has otherwise kept the level of reflection on his journey minimal.
“I’ll be emotional in my own way, probably behind closed doors,” Hinch said. “I’ll hide it from you guys, on what getting back to October truly means to me.”
Monday in Houston, though, Hinch seemed energized to be sitting on that stage and answering questions as a postseason manager once again. “If you can’t tell, I love October,” he said.
The Tigers got here on the backs of probable Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal and the All-Star play of Riley Greene. But just as importantly, they are here despite seven rookie position players and a pitching staff that was down to only two healthy starters in August. Using an influx of bullpen games, the Tigers became baseball’s hottest team anyway, with Hinch pushing the buttons and optimizing unheralded young relievers with great success. In this series, the plan is similar to what the Tigers have done for the past two months.
“Tarik Skubal tomorrow and pitching chaos the rest of the way,” Hinch said.
In his first postseason as manager, Espada counters with a roster laden with playoff experience.
Some of those are the players Hinch once managed. But outside of Altuve and Bregman, there are few true remnants of Hinch’s tenure on this team. His fingerprints are perhaps evidenced most in Espada, the old teammate he brought to Houston and helped groom into a manager.
“Super important as a manager to have postseason playoff experience,” Hinch said with a laugh. “Not as important for the players to have played in the postseason. I can’t lay it out any more simply than that.”
Naturally, Espada shared another perspective. “(Experience) does matter,” he said. “It matters a lot. Postseason baseball — the energy, the stage, it matters.”
His team is young, but Hinch has ample playoff experience. In this building. With these Astros. Even with Espada by his side.
Now his winding path after suspension leads him back to the memories, back into the scrutiny and, whether he likes it or not, into the spotlight once again.
“This is not about me,” Hinch said. “This is not about a redemption story. This is not trying to prove anything. I just love leading a team. I love being in the position I’m in. I’m very fortunate. I’m very thankful. The Tigers brought me here and obviously after a couple of tough seasons, here we are, and I’m proud.”
(Top photo: Chris Coduto / Getty Images)
