Magic for Detroit Tigers? Sure, but manager A.J. Hinch is the magician casting a spell (2024)

After Justyn-Henry Malloy lifted a high-arching sacrifice fly to center, like some beautiful rainbow stretching across Comerica Park.

After Matt Vierling came sliding across home plate, pumping his fist and screaming: “Let’s go!”

After Jason Foley closed it out on pure emotion and desire.

After another amazing, magical win by the Detroit Tigers — so many have run together, it's a blur.

Manager A.J. Hinch sat behind a table in Comerica Park, a smile frozen on his face.

“Does it feel like there's a little bit of magic to this run as well?” a reporter asked, after the Tigers rallied for a 4-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.

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Hinch laughed.

“I don't know, but if so, bottle it up and keep bringing it to the ballpark,” Hinch said. “I do think that we believe. I've said that over and over, sitting at this mic.”

Yes, he believed back in August when the Tigers had lost nine of 12 games and fell to 55-63 on Aug. 10. And he certainly believed on Thursday afternoon, after this team won its fifth straight overall and 30th in 41 games, shrinking its magic number to two with three games to play (and their trailer, the Minnesota Twins, playing late Thursday).

“There's a renewed energy every single day because of what's going on and because of what we think we can accomplish,” Hinch said. “Whether that's magic, whether that's momentum, whether that's mojo, whether that's vibe, whatever — we love it and we want more of it.”

So does Detroit.

But how is this team doing this? How do you explain how this team has risen from the ashes — something so improbable, so surprising and so dang fun?

What has Hinch done to pull so much magic out of these youngsters?

I spent the past week trying to figure it out.

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The consistency

Walking around the Tigers clubhouse, I asked different players the same question: How has Hinch guided this team from such a big hole to the verge of the playoffs?

“He’s the same guy,” catcher Jake Rogers said with a shrug.

That might sound simple, but it’s a part of it. A huge part of it. Hinch has been the same dude, whether they were losing or winning. He's like some old guy in the forest, never freaking out, holding a flashlight, showing these youngsters the way.

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Being aggressive

Hinch preaches being aggressive, being prepared and forcing the other team to make a play.

So in the eighth inning Thursday, when the Tigers were losing, 3-2, and a pitch went into the dirt, Riley Greene didn’t hesitate and took off for second. That seemed to spark the Tigers, and put even more pressure on Tampa pitcher Garrett Cleavinger, who promptly walked Vierling.

Then, everything unfolded perfectly. Greene scored on a Colt Keith base hit — but just as significantly, Vierling advanced to third, once again being aggressive, setting up the winning run.

“We’ve been really aggressive on the bases.” Keith said. “And I think more times than not, it works out for us.”

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Being prepared

“He's the most prepared person I think I've ever seen in any profession, honestly, and just a really sound decision maker,” Casey Mize said. “I think those are two qualities that you need in a manager, but A.J. takes it to another level.”

And a huge part of being prepared is focusing on the fundamentals, putting in countless hours behind the scenes.

One game at a time

Hinch is used to high-pressure games late in a season. He has managed in 50 postseason games, winning 28 of them.

But he never talks about the future.

“The best thing we can do is win today,” he repeats.

Hinch has refused to talk about the possibility of the postseason, while trying to shield his players and take pressure off them. That might seem like a small thing, but not to Malloy.

“It’s super important,” Malloy said. “I've been on teams, obviously not in the big leagues, but I've been on teams that talked a lot about how another team is playing or how we stack up against another team, or if this team wins or loses — blah, blah, blah. Obviously, we're all very aware, and we all know what's going on. But the reality is that if we don't win today, like it really doesn't matter if they won or lost.”

Understanding players

Hinch has an interesting perspective when it comes to dealing with everybody on the roster, from superstars to guys at the end of the bench.

Hinch played seven years in the big leagues and was a career .219 hitter in 350 games — a less-than-remarkable career.

He’s not afraid to say things like: I have no idea what it’s like to be Jackson Jobe.

But he understands what it’s like to be a player who is struggling.

“He has that kind of understanding, like, how freaking hard this game is,” Spencer Torkelson said. “And he knows what it looks like to go through it. He knows what it feels like. And he also knows what it looks like when a guy still has that belief in himself at the plate. He can sense when there is a light at the end of the tunnel. So that's something that's pretty special, too."

Torkelson has gone through it at points this season.

Then, you know what Torkelson did on Wednesday night? He hit a homer and a double. Like a light bursting from a tunnel.

Being unselfish

Hinch has created an unselfish culture in this Tigers clubhouse.

“We trust him,” Kerry Carpenter said.

On Sunday, Carpenter hit a pair of homers against Baltimore. But Hinch pinch-hit Malloy for him afterward. “I know he's making that decision for the right reason,” Carpenter said.

On Thursday afternoon, Hinch put Torkelson in the six-hole.

Then, Hinch brought in Carpenter to pinch-hit, and Carpenter promptly got an RBI.

Then, Hinch took out Carpenter and brought in Malloy to pinch-hit for a pinch-hitter, and Malloy got the game-winner.

“A.J. said that before the game, he had a meeting, and he kind of laid out what his plan was going to be,” I said to Malloy. “How much did that help you, that you knew when you might come up and in what kind of situation?

“A.J. does a really good job of just being able to kind of predict the game,” Malloy said. “It's kind of weird, like how he kind of knows. It's just this game of chess on a baseball field, which is awesome.”

Having belief

Hinch has a little bit of Ted Lasso in him.

It’s all about belief.

He believes in the players, sometimes before they even do it on the field.

“He trusts us to out there to do our job,” left-handed reliever Tyler Holton said.

Position to succeed

The whole organization is based on a simple philosophy: Put guys in a position to succeed, utilizing their strengths, whether that means bringing in a righty who can crush lefties, or a certain type of pitcher against a certain part of the batting order.

“We're trying to do everything we can, to use our best guys in the best situations to win as many games as we can,” Hinch said.

And look at them now. They have a ridiculous 30-11 record since the Aug. 11 start of the run.

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Keeping things light

The Tigers have a ton of young players on this roster. And those youngsters usually come up to the majors and wonder: What’s this gonna be like?

“He keeps things a little more lighthearted, especially for us young guys,” rookie left-hander Brant Hurter said.

That lightness has been invaluable during this pressure-packed run.

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Everybody is welcome

If there is one thing Hinch has cultivated, it is a comfortable, welcoming clubhouse.

That’s why so many young players have come up to the big leagues, quickly adjusted and quickly made an impact.

“I think the one thing that stands out about him is he's just an extremely good communicator,” Matt Vierling said. “You could talk to him about anything. It doesn't matter what it is. I think that's what makes him such a good manager. He’s not intimidating. He's very approachable. He really tries to make the guys feel comfortable. He'll come in here and hang out with us in the locker room and just sit here and BS with us about college football or fantasy football or hypotheticals. It doesn't matter. But it makes everybody comfortable.”

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Add it all up

So, let’s try to recap what we saw on Thursday.

We saw Hinch empty his bench, mixing and matching, as the Tigers were playing unselfishly.

We saw players being aggressive on the bases, setting up this comeback.

We saw belief — oh, so much freakin’ belief.

We saw a one game at a time attack.

We saw fundamentals. Some great defense. And some timely hitting. And some clutch pitching.

We saw a comfortable, relaxed team that seems oblivious to pressure.

We saw the results of communication and creativity — I swear guys were moving all over the place.

And we saw guys being put in a position to excel.

Before you knew it, they were celebrating another win.

Is that magic? Nah.

This is what Hinch has been preaching all along.

Contact Jeff Seidel:jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on X@seideljeff. To read his recent columns, go tofreep.com/sports/jeff-seidel.

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