It didn’t take long for Houston to start poking around for Dana Brown’s replacement, and one name that surfaced comes with a familiar face in Detroit.
The Astros fired Brown a little over a week ago, and the organization is now dividing his duties among four different executives, with special advisor and Hall of Famer Jeff Bagwell among them and owner Jim Crane overseeing baseball operations. Former Tigers manager Brad Ausmus, who is close friends with Bagwell and finished as the runner-up the last time Houston filled the job, is believed to be in the mix again.
But Bob Nightengale reported that Houston may have its sights set even higher, or at least closer to the Tigers’ dugout. Nightengale wrote, "While Detroit Tigers manager AJ Hinch still is beloved in the Houston Astros organization and has a strong relationship with owner Jim Crane, he has no interest at this time of filling their GM vacancy."
That doesn’t say whether Hinch was formally asked about the opening, but it does take one possible name off the board before the Astros’ search gets rolling in earnest.
For Detroit, that’s the better outcome. The Tigers would rather not be staring at a future without Hinch in place, especially not with 2027 hanging out there. Still, if Hinch is going to stay put instead of chasing a more prestigious and likely more lucrative role, the Tigers need him to straighten out a few things first.
His biggest problem this season has been how he has handled the bullpen. Early in the year, there was plenty of frustration over his pinch-hitting decisions, too, but that noise has eased since the organization moved on from Jahmai Jones and with Kerry Carpenter on the IL. The bullpen, though, has remained a real issue, with Hinch looking ineffective at times and occasionally completely unsure how to deploy his relievers.
Of course, this is not all on one person. Detroit’s late-game messes invite the full chicken-or-egg debate: did Harris put together a shaky bullpen, did the relievers simply fail to perform, or did Hinch make things worse by mismanaging the pieces he had?
The answer is probably some mix of all three. But Hinch still carries part of the blame for the Tigers’ ugly and too-frequent collapses late in games.
Detroit rewarded him with a long-term contract extension last season, though the full terms were never disclosed, and the move was widely well received at the time. That goodwill has taken a hit during this losing year, but there’s still enough time for Hinch to change the conversation.
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Detroits rotation picture for 2027 is already pointing toward a group built around younger arms, which gives the front office a different kind of decision to make. With that in mind, the Tigers may decide not to re-sign Mize if he reaches free agency, choosing instead to keep the runway open for the pitchers they are trying to develop. It leaves his status as a reunion candidate hanging in a way that would have been hard to picture a few years ago. [Read more 🡒]