DETROIT, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – Seventeen years after being the backup catcher for the 2003 Detroit Tigers, AJ Hinch is coming, this time as manager for the team. Detroit hired the former Houtson Astros and Arizona Diamondback manager Friday.
The announcement came exactly one year after Hinch’s last game as Astros manager, Game 7 of the 2019 World Series.
Detroit spent the past four weeks interviewing close to a dozen candidates for the chance to replace Ron Gardenhire, who retired as the Tigers’ manager last month. But the club moved quickly once Hinch was free to talk to clubs after the World Series ended Tuesday night, completing his suspension for the 2020 season after Major League Baseball’s investigation of the Astros’ sign-stealing allegations.
Hinch played 27 games for the Tigers and then-assistant GM Al Avila in 2003 after Detroit purchased his contract from Cleveland at the end of Spring Training. His manager in Detroit was Hall of Famer Alan Trammell, currently a Tigers special assistant. Another former Tigers great and special assistant, Kirk Gibson, was Hinch’s bench coach with the D-backs in 2009-10.
