It's time to admit I was wrong about Detroit Tigers manager A.J. Hinch

Let me be the first to say something about A.J. Hinch that a lot of us around Detroit might be uncomfortable admitting.

Here it is: I was wrong about the Tigers manager.

I was wrong when I wrote in December that it was too early to sign him to an extension , because he had yet to win 80 games in any of his three seasons in Detroit.

But now that the Tigers have done the improbable – if not the impossible or miraculous – and returned to the playoffs for the first time in 10 years, it’s time to say I was wrong, as I suspect many of us were. So, Mr. Hinch, please accept my mea culpa and our wea culpa .

It’s also time to give the guy who led them there his due.

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“It's kind of a joke, but I don't really think it's a joke. We call him our fearless leader,” outfielder Riley Greene said Sunday before the Tigers wrapped up their 86-win season with a 9-5 loss to the Chicago White Sox at sold out Comerica Park.

Greene smiled as he said this, later explaining how that moniker is invoked playfully yet sincerely often in the clubhouse.

“And to be honest, he is,” Greene said of a leader who has known no fear and very little losing for most of the past two months. “He's incredible.”

Outside the clubhouse, of course, it’s been a different story for most of the past four years.

Hinch has not always been a popular figure around Detroit for numerous reasons, the chief one being that he arrived with the shameful baggage from his part in the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing cheating scandal. He felt, in some ways, like an overhyped castoff that was only good enough for Detroit once he became damaged goods.

Now that he’s taking the Tigers to the postseason, in one of the year’s most improbable sports stories, all of that is over. Because Hinch has finally redeemed himself by winning in a new town and in a new way. He has proved that all his winning in Houston wasn’t solely the work of underhanded chicanery or a dynastic franchise that has continued to win without him and now gets a head-to-head playoff showdown filled with more dramatic plotlines than a Greek tragedy.

One big problem I had with team president Scott Harris extending Hinch two years before his contract expired was that I thought Hinch was closer to never managing again than he was to getting a third managing job.

But after this season, there is no question Hinch would have suitors lined up if he and the Tigers ever part ways. Just look at what he’s done with a $104 million payroll, the majors’ seventh smallest according to FanGraphs.

Only Cleveland and Baltimore, each with $103 million payrolls, have done more with less. But if you take away the albatross of Javier Baez’s $25 million salary this year – and even if you remove Shane Bieber’s $13.1 million salary after his lost season due to Tommy John surgery – the Tigers still spent about $58,000 less per win than the Guardians.

No one, especially the business people who run baseball teams, can ignore that fact. That production with this payroll, more than anything, is tangible proof of Hinch’s redemption within baseball’s corridors of power, if not quite his absolution – even if Hinch didn’t want to delve into the topic when I brought it up Sunday.

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“This is not about me,” he said, consistently deflecting praise as he has all season. “This is not about a redemption story. It's not about trying to prove anything. I just love leading the team.”

If you’re wondering, Hinch and I aren’t close. I have no reason to protect him or burnish his legacy. In fact, I grew up disliking him because we were in college around the same time when he played for Stanford, which regularly played against and beat my alma mater, Cal State Fullerton. I won’t even bring up the famously annoying Stanford smugness, which I’m pretty sure is a major at the school, if not a doctoral program.

And yet, Hinch has won me over. I always respected that he accepted responsibility for his actions – or more accurately, inaction – in Houston’s cheating scandal.

“I understand how wrong it was,” Hinch told Detroit reporters in 2020 upon his hiring after he served a one-year suspension. “I'm sorry for that. I've said that before. I'll say it again. I'll continue to say it.”

As uncomfortable as the topic is, he’s never brushed off questions about it or tried to pretend it’s just an old story now.

“I'm very fortunate,” he said Sunday. “I'm very thankful. The Tigers brought me here and, obviously, after a couple of tough seasons, here we are and I'm proud. So I'm proud, proud to be where I am.

“I know my story. I will never forget or sort of underestimate what happened to get here.”

Everyone knows Hinch’s story, but those closest to him have a deeper and more personal appreciation of that story’s arc.

“Yeah, it just shows the person he is,” Greene said. “It just shows that he never gave up and he cares and he really wants what's best for all of us. It's awesome to be able to be a part of it and to be able to play for him.”

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If there’s a secret to Hinch’s success with the Tigers, it’s what he considers the most impactful trait a manager can have: buy-in from his players for the greater good.

“That allows you to do anything unimaginable,” he said, “like use openers and pinch hit and put guys in a position to be successful and challenge guys to get better for them to get a call-up and have tough conversations with them. Because when you have player buy-in, anything is possible.”

Hinch’s answer was as close as he’s ever gotten to taking credit for his team’s success. I don’t blame him because it’s a hard-earned accomplishment that has made all the difference in succeeding where others haven’t for a decade.

“I'm really thankful for that, because that doesn't come for free,” he said. “You’ve got to earn that from the players.”

Maybe he’s even earned something more, like gratitude and buy-in from a city that wasn’t so sure about him just two months ago.

Contact Carlos Monarrez: cmonarrez@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez .

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: It's time to admit I was wrong about Detroit Tigers manager A.J. Hinch