MLB WINTER MEETINGS

December 5, 2023

A.J. Hinch

Detroit Tigers

Press Conference

Q. Casey Mize coming back. You've had pitchers come back the last bunch of years from this injury. Do you think you have a pretty good feel for how you ease him in and what restrictions you need to put on him?

A.J. HINCH: I'm really proud of Casey for the work that he put in this year. I watched it up close and personal in Detroit. We had him in Detroit all year. He rehabbed, he was part of our team, part of the culture, part of being a teammate.

He did incredible work. Our medical team was confident that we could get him to the point where we're at now where he can have a normal off-season and go into the spring.

I think once he starts ramping things back up, we'll start to lay out what his spring looks like. I know Casey's not going to want any restrictions, he's not going to want any governors, he's not going to want any sort of carefulness, but we're going to listen to him. We're going to put a good plan together, and we're going to put him in a position to compete.

He hasn't been on the mound competitively in a long time, and so, if anything, we're going to have to corral his emotions just as much as we're going to have to talk about his pitch counts or his innings or any type of recovery from the injury.

But I know he's going to do the work, and I know he's going to come in prepared.

Q. Do you have to monitor pitch count innings for other pitchers as well?

A.J. HINCH: Yeah, probably. I think we have a number of guys coming off of injuries, and I don't know how it's going to go yet. We're going to get into the spring and have a full conversation about what's best for the players, what's best for our competitiveness, what's best for a structure, and then it's all going to get blown up for some reason or another.

I try not to get too caught up in what that's going to look like, but we're going to be very strategic with how we use our guys. That doesn't mean that a pitcher's not going to go seven eight, nine innings. Like the complete game's still a thing. But they're going to have to earn it. We're going to team up with the players, and I'll hear from the office, and we'll all get together and figure out what's best for 'em.

Q. You had great success last year using bullpen games. I know that's not necessarily -- that's more of a scripted thing by definition. You also had success mixing and matching guys going with righty, lefty kind of things. That's a different conversation, is it not, than a scripted game?

A.J. HINCH: Yeah, so I think the bullpen game has become a thing because it works. I think it's not a threat to starting pitching, it's not indicating that you don't have the starting pitching. It just makes it really hard on the hitters to have to adjust to multiple pitchers in a game. It's hard to survive doing that the entire year, and that's why you don't see a lot of teams that do that, and we're certainly not going to be a team that does that.

But you're always reading and reacting in the game, you're trying to get through nine innings with an entire bullpen in a bullpen game, with somebody taking the brunt of the innings and hopefully being good.

So I think there's a difference between matchups and different -- it's different than bullpen games or openers and trying to -- in reality, all you're really trying to do is put your pitchers in a position to get the hitters out the most.

There's an art to it because there's some reading of the game and when to extend this pitcher or when to limit another pitcher. And they're fun to manage, but you don't want 162 of 'em.

Q. The matchups, though, that's based on context of the game?

A.J. HINCH: Yeah, so matchup stuff to me is like you're targeting guys that the pitcher's strength can attack the hitter weakness or, if it's pinch-hitting, your hitter on the bench is a great matchup against the pitcher that that guy brings in. That's just playing your players the best of your ability to try to give 'em the most chance to have success.

Now, some teams are built having more decisions like that than others. I get asked all the time on what my preference is, and my preference is to win. The only way you win is by using your players the best way you can. Sometimes that means pinch-hitting in more years than others, and sometimes that means running a bullpen game every now and then to give starters an extra day's rest or strategically to flip a lineup or how you match up against somebody.

Q. How do you kind of reflect on the two years with Austin Meadows?

A.J. HINCH: Number one, I root for the person because that's going to be more important than anything on the field that he did or didn't do. I've stayed in contact with him loosely, just trying to offer support as his manager. I want him to find peace in his life way more than I want to see anything about his baseball career. He has been very open, and I've appreciated that. My time with him was incredibly emotional, it was personal, and I feel for him because I know the impact he can have on the field.

But watching him grow into being a dad and watching him trying to stabilize his, you know, mental health is going override anything that we see on the field. So I love the guy, I think the world of him, I feel for him because it's been a trying couple of years as a Tiger. And when we didn't bring him back, I let him know that just because we might not wear the same uniform, it doesn't mean he doesn't have an ally in me.

Q. Could you talk about the contribution of Kenta Maeda?

A.J. HINCH: I'm excited to get him and get him on our team. I've watched him from the other side, and I've watched him be really good. I've seen him pitch on the biggest stage in the World Series. I've seen him dominate a young lineup with his fastball split combo and an occasional slider.

So it meant a lot to me that he signed here, trusting that we're trying to win, and he said as much to the media. I look forward to having him in the rotation and being a stable presence as a veteran pitcher who has pitched all over the world, offering some expertise to our pitching staff.

I'm going to have to polish up my Japanese. I don't know a lot of it, but I'll learn it over the next year.

Q. So you have a chance to talk to him?

A.J. HINCH: Kan Ikeda, who is in our front office, has been the link between us and Kenta, as Kenta's back in Japan. We do have a strength coach who traveled over to Japan for a different reason that's going to try to connect with him. We've been in touch with a lot of the people around him, and we know he's preparing. I got a lot of videos, and I understand what he's doing to prepare himself for the spring.

Q. For the splitter in particular with Kenta but also with Casey, that pitch was used more and more last year compared to years prior, and also very effective. Why do you feel like it's effective, and is it valuable to have two of those?

A.J. HINCH: So it generates a lot of soft contact or miss. Those are two things that we value a ton. Certainly as managers you're trying to create as much swing and miss or as much soft contact as you can get.

When Kenta came back from his injury, he was one of the better pitchers in our league. And the numbers show it. He was tough to hit. He was tough to center up and put multiple hits together.

We have a tremendous outfield defense; so when he does give up fly balls, we feel like we can protect him a little bit. He's crafty in a complementary way that he knows how to pitch. He's evolved as an older pitcher learning how to manipulate the ball to get the ball below the barrel. That's very useful. Casey's going to learn a lot from him just by watching him.

Q. Talking about the sort of maximizing every pitch. Bullpen games and all that, is there still a role for that sort of old-school back-of-the-rotation innings eater in today's game with that emphasis on maximizing rotation?

A.J. HINCH: Yeah, pitchers are still getting paid, they're still getting signed up to come in and start games. I think there's great value -- you have a lot of innings you got to get through to get through a season, and you need a lot of pitchers if any one of 'em aren't going to take down 180 to 200 innings.

It's amazing how the sport has evolved where we used to talk at 200 plus, and then it got to like 200, and then it got to 190, and now it gets to 170. Now 150's getting paid. So I think there's a strategic portion of this where you're trying to win an individual game and how -- the decisions we have to make.

But the longevity of the season, somebody's got to take down these innings; otherwise, your bullpen's going to be shot and your rotation's going to be tested. Because there's a lot of games you go into with three relievers that are down, and your starter needs to go out there and deliver a hundred-plus pitches and try to get through six or seven. That's still valuable in today's game.

Q. Whatever you guys are able to do on the remaining free agent pitcher, how will that impact how you view and how you potentially use guys like Faedo and (indiscernible)?

A.J. HINCH: Yeah, so we have -- we're in a good position with pitching, knock on wood. You can never have enough. We have a lot of guys who have been given some opportunities in the last couple years to fill a lot of roles, whether it's start games or be a bridge or come up out of the bullpen.

I think it's going to create some healthy competition. Whether or not we add more pitching to the mix, we already have a pretty stiff competition to make our team. I think as we're a maturing team who is trying to get better and trying to factor in we want to win the Central, you should have good competition across your roster.

I think we're starting to get there with the depth that we have, and then we add bona fide Big Leaguers to it, all the better. But it is going to create -- we're heading towards one of the tougher springs that I think we've had in my time as a Tiger with the type of competition that we're going to have. Whether it's for innings or at-bats, the competition's going to be real.

Q. What was the biggest advice you would give for a first-year manager?

A.J. HINCH: You know, first off, I love Stephen. I would have loved him more if he was out of the AL Central. But I think he's -- I think whether it's him or any first-year manager, the faster you can be yourself, the more the players will adapt to your personality or your impact or your fingerprints will be all over it.

I think that once you're yourself, you make your best decisions when you are comfortable in your own skin in the position that you're in.

One of the hardest things about being a first-year manager is you consume yourself with so much of what the people who are looking at you, what they think of you. And in reality, like, they probably don't care as much as you wish they cared. They want you to help them be the best version of themselves. As you settle into these roles and you're going to -- as a first-year manager, the more comfortable you are in the position, the better decisions you're going to make.

Q. To go back to innings and guys coming off of injuries with the rotation, the bullpen likely really important this year?

A.J. HINCH: So I think we have a number of guys, as you've seen, the way I managed the last couple years, there really isn't anybody that shouldn't go one plus. Certainly there's on the path to a win you get the back-end guys that you try to keep available as many days as you can.

But generally speaking, I'm a big believer in multi-position player, I'm a big believer in relievers having to take down more than winning. I think that allows me to make the best decisions possible the most often in the game. So we train our guys that way. They go in -- and if ask you any of our relievers, they're going to know a one plus is in there. Some guys are going to know a two plus is in there.

But when you combine where our rotation is and where our bullpen is, whatever it takes to win that day's game is the most important.

Q. Talking about the competition this spring, with the prospects coming in that are going to have a pretty good chance, is Jung in the same kind of category as Malloy and Keith in terms of just he's younger, he's not come as far as others? But is he still going to be given the same Spring Training at-bats, same Spring Training look?

A.J. HINCH: Yeah, so we're going to be young, but that doesn't mean worse. We're going to have talented young hitters that are all going to be competing for at-bats.

Jace hasn't played Triple-A yet, so it's a little unfair to put him in that same category as Colt and Justyn. They both have not only played Triple-A but dominated Triple-A. Their tests on whether or not they make our team are going to be different.

Now, we haven't talked to them. They don't even know they're coming to Big League Camp yet, except that they maybe read the depth charts and the roster projection that Evan did.

But I think that they are very much in the mix, and they have got a lot of work to do to make our team. Jace is going to get plenty of opportunity if he gets invited to Big League Camp to showcase what he can do.

But the work will not be done for any of these guys. They're not finished products, whether they factor in or not or whether they make our team or not.

I am excited to see them with all of this attention on 'em. It's one thing to be on a prospect list; it's another to be sort of a feature part of the competition trying to make a Major League roster for the first time. Last year's Big League Camp was awesome for him, for Justyn and Colt in specific, but I don't think anybody had an expectation that they were going to factor in. This year could be a little bit different, and I'm sure they will react positively.

Q. Are Colt and Justyn, if they are going to make the roster, are they going to need to do it as multi-position options, or could you see a scenario which they get to --

A.J. HINCH: Doesn't everybody? I mean, almost everybody on our team except for Tork and Javy, and, I mean, Parker is going to play center when he plays, and of course the two catchers, even though the catchers could play multiple positions because it's the best athletes on the field, they -- yeah, they're going to need to factor in on both sides of the ball and not only just play defense but play defense well and play multiple positions.

Q. Speaking of Javy, what's been the level of communication between you two?

A.J. HINCH: Javy's been good. I texted back and forth with him on his birthday. He's done his work. He's sent workout videos, and I've seen some of the work that he's doing.

We're going to try to get together at some point. He's been spending time in multiple places, and he's putting the work in. Obviously I want to check in with him more aggressively as we get past these Winter Meetings, into the holidays and then the sprint to the spring comes.

I know he's putting the work in. I know our guys have been in touch with him, and we're going to continue to nudge him in the direction of more consistency.

Q. How important is it to put him in the right mindset going into Spring Training, given how --

A.J. HINCH: I don't think the mindset for him is a problem. I think staying with the routines that he's going to build is going to be really critical. I think there's -- in the off-season, everybody's in a good place, everybody's working hard, everybody's -- because failure is not involved. There is no feedback that gives these guys negative thoughts or negative vibes. There's no punch-outs. There's no 0-for-10s. There's no errors. There's no booing. There's no ramifications for anything other than "I feel really good when I go get my workout on and I feel like I got a good day's work in."

I think the true test will be staying -- for all our players, will be staying disciplined as you reintroduce the difficulty of the game and then the feedback that comes with that positively and negatively.

Q. You mentioned the art of making in-game decisions. What have you learned about when to go off script or when to trust going over the sheets?

A.J. HINCH: It's a great question because I don't think you can manage games simply on your stomach, and I don't think you can manage games simply on a script. The guys that can blend it are the best. They're also the toughest guys to manage against.

So I think you have to combine what you see with what you know. I can study all I want, but there's always going to be added information that comes throughout the day. Whether it's how somebody feels, what's going on at home, what's their health like, what's their recovery been like, what's their nutrition been like, what's their confidence level at, that information that goes between when you study and when you compete is added in.

Now, I don't have to talk about it to you guys or I don't have to disclose all that, but when I'm making decisions in game, it's never solely about what's on the paper, and it's never solely about what I think or what I hope. It's always a combination and a blend.

You can be new school, old school. I watched Bochy do it in the World Series to win a World Series. He's one of the best blended managers in the history of the game. Even though people like to call him old school. I think that's an aspirational type of person that you want to be in this seat.

Q. Do you have a gut-hunch move that you've made that you remember that you knew was off book?

A.J. HINCH: I don't know, that's a tough one. So yesterday I got a chance to sit in the back row and listen to Jim Leyland talk, and him talking about a decision that he made years and years and years ago, like in such a way that, like, I could relate. Like, I know exactly what he's talking about, where you make a decision and you wonder if it was the right decision for the rest of your life.

I have a million of those. I think a lot of times those -- we judge ourselves by whether the move worked out or not, 99 percent of the times, but the ones that eat at you are the ones where you're not focused on the result but you know the process that went into making the decision, and those are hard. Those are hard to get over, and they're hard to convince yourself that you made the right decision if it didn't work out.

But I got a few of those that are still deep in my soul that I'm not ready to disclose yet.