It was always going to happen.
But did it have to happen this fast?
And in the same week that the Los Angeles Dodgers won the World Series by beating the team that beat the Astros?
Talk about full circle.
A.J. Hinch is back in Major League Baseball. He’s a manager, again. He’s in the American League again. He’s in charge of taking a rebuild to the next level again. And now the 2021 Astros occasionally will have to deal with seeing the best skipper in franchise history on the other side of the field.
On Texas Sports Nation: Are A.J. Hinch, Jeff Luhnow and Alex Cora hireable?
“I started thinking right then and there, when A.J. and Jeff (Luhnow) got suspended, what’s going to happen to those two guys? Are those two guys going to be back in the sport? Would they be welcomed back in the sport?” said Christopher Ilitch, chairman and CEO of the Detroit Tigers, when Hinch was hired on Friday. “As time went on and I just sort of watched from afar how everybody that was involved with that handled themself, I really admired the way A.J. handled himself.”
It’s still 100 percent fair to question whether Jim Crane got it right on Jan. 13, when the Astros owner did what MLB commissioner Rob Manfred did not, firing Hinch and Luhnow for their roles in a sign-stealing scandal that has been and will continue to be endlessly debated.
On Texas Sports Nation: A summary of A.J. Hinch’s tenure with the Astros
Many Astros fans spent the majority of the 2020 season begging/hoping/waiting for Hinch to magically return. It took a stunning playoff run and Dusty Baker guiding a remade club to Game 7 of the American League Championship Series during the weirdest season in MLB history for all the still-proud Hinch holdouts to admit the new guy had his own unique touch.
What was obvious the moment that the Astros’ organization publicly moved on from Hinch: He was getting back into baseball.
The fact that Detroit waited all of about 30 minutes to dial Hinch’s digits after the Dodgers clinched their world championship — and Hinch’s suspension officially ended — tells you everything about how the real (sports) world really works.
“I always knew that I wanted to get back into baseball,” Hinch told reporters. “It was a matter of, I think, the game and the people within the game will tell you where that’s going to be, if it’s going to be anywhere.”
I always believed the man who guided the Astros to 311 combined victories and two World Series runs from 2017-19 would return to the grand ol’ game before Luhnow, who ultimately constructed — for better and worse — everything that the rebuilt Astros became.
And I’ll be honest: It was darn weird seeing Hinch’s familiar face in front of Detroit’s instantly recognizable Old English D.
What’s wrong with this picture?
So much if you once truly believed in the 2015-19 Astros.
Nothing, really, if you believe that everyone deserves a second chance in this crazy thing we call life.
Or that Hinch, for as culpable as he was, ended up as one of the primary fall guys in a sport-altering scandal that primarily benefited unpunished Astros players — and potentially other teams still not punished by MLB.
“We had a pretty good knowledge of A.J., of who he was,” Detroit general manager Al Avila said. “There was never a doubt in my mind of his character, honesty — he’s one of the better guys that you’re going to meet in the game, or in life in general. One mistake does not determine a man.”
I’ll say what I’ve always said: If you really want to blame someone, blame Manfred.
MLB horribly blew it during the steroid era and blew it again when technologically aided sign stealing changed the game during the last decade. When the sport finally acted, it was Bud Selig all over again for Manfred — too little, too late.
Charlie Morton, who locked down the Astros’ first and only World Series title in 2017, knocked Baker’s Astros out of the playoffs in 2020 and pitched Tampa Bay into the Fall Classic.
Mookie Betts, who won the AL MVP in 2018 and starred on an Alex Cora-managed Boston squad that blasted the Astros out of the ALCS before winning a world championship, won another World Series with the Dodgers this week.
Those 2018 Red Sox no longer look the same.
The 2017 Astros will never be the same.
“I understand how wrong it was, and I’m sorry for that,” Hinch said. “I’ve said that before, I’ll say it again, I’ll continue to say it. I’ll never forget the feeling that I’ve had throughout the past year as I’ve navigated this with my family.”
Being fired by the Astros ended a golden era for Hinch and instantly changed his life. He was forced to carry a weight with Luhnow that no one else in the organization — not the players, not Crane — had to bear.
Hinch’s next shot at baseball redemption — he was fired by Arizona in 2010 — will begin by leading one of the worst teams in the sport.
The Tigers are a perfect fit for Hinch right now.
Just like Baker was the perfect manager for the 2020 Astros.
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