Tigers Manager A.J. Hinch joins Costa and Jansen to discuss Opening Day at Comerica Park and more!
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00:00Sun is up. It's shining on the ballpark. 50 degrees for first pitch. Sounds pretty good.
00:05We're joined by the Tiger manager. Happy opening day, AJ.
00:09We are happy to be home. That was about an eight-week road trip from spring training
00:16to California and leads us back to downtown Detroit. So we're pumped to be here.
00:20From your position right now, and you get a chance to see the excitement from the players,
00:25you'll certainly see the excitement from the fans on the way to the ballpark, in the ballpark,
00:29what's your level of excitement and how much does the environment play and amp it things up
00:35when you finally get going? Yeah, it's awesome. I mean, we love playing at home. And, you know,
00:41this group, almost to a man, saw the ballpark alive, you know, for the last September and into
00:49the playoffs. And so this is an electric environment when our people come out and support us. And it's
00:57a thrill. I mean, obviously, opening day is special. The home opener is always special in
01:02Detroit. It's like a holiday in Michigan, as it should be. And I think our players thrive off of
01:07that environment. And, you know, it's kind of ironic. Last time we played the White Sox,
01:13we had a pretty big celebration after that one of those games. And now here they are coming back for
01:20our first home game this year. Yeah, I remember that. That was a fun Friday night for a lot of
01:23fans. A.J., what did you take out of the first six games, the road trip to kick off the season?
01:30A little bit of everything. You know, I mean, obviously, you know, we got hit with some
01:34injuries coming out of spring. But our guys have responded well. You know, I feel like we should
01:39have won a game or two in L.A. and then we go up and win this series in Seattle. So it was a tough
01:45way to finish it, not getting the sweep. But, you know, our guys have done a pretty good job
01:51adjusting from, you know, the schedule change to going out west. And, you know, we were playing
01:579 a.m. practices for six weeks, one o'clock games on the East Coast. And now we were on the West
02:03Coast. That's not an easy transition. So I thought our guys handled that fine. And a few mistakes
02:08would have changed the record on the road trip. But I also think there was a lot of good that got
02:14covered up by, you know, a few of those losses. So a little mixture of both. But I think as a
02:20manager, watching our guys prepare and watching our guys get into games and, you know, our
02:26approaches early in the games have been awesome against really good pitchers. I hope that continues
02:31so that we can sort of, you know, get the benefit of that type of preparation into the win column.
02:37You mentioned the injuries. And obviously, the biggest position that was hit was center field.
02:43And how are you managing the workload of Riley Green in center? When to play him in center,
02:50when to keep him in left versus Ryan Kreidler? Yeah, I mean, obviously, I've turned to Kreidler a
02:56lot. You know, as a defensive first player in, you know, he's trying to give him some consistent
03:02playing time and leave Riley in left field. I gave him a DH day. I'm probably going to give Riley
03:07a game off at some point and be, you know, conservative with how much load we put on him.
03:13As with all of our guys, Karp got a day off. All of these guys are not going to play every single
03:18game. So I, you know, as far as center field goes, I'm not afraid to play Riley in center.
03:23I think it's really important for everyone to know that. The tradeoff is really, you know,
03:29the defensive first mindset versus trying to squeeze a little bit of extra offense. Now,
03:34the better that Margo plays, the more that he plays. The better that Andy Abana plays,
03:39maybe he mixes in some at-bats against righties, which can push McKinstry to the outfield. So
03:44it's truly a mix and match of multiple positions. It's not just about center field,
03:49you know, I like the lineup with Kreisler in center and Riley on a corner and Karp on a corner
03:54specifically with Malloy here. That's probably the general outfield I'm going to go with. Now,
03:59I say that and I'm not going with that today. Riley is in center field today. So I'm just
04:05going day by day and sorting out, you know, what to put in, you know, or when to put in,
04:12you know, whatever strength we want.
04:14A lot of moving parts. We're talking to AJ Hinch this morning, opening day here in Detroit.
04:19A lot of talk in the offseason was Colt Keats moving to first. Now Colt Keats back over at
04:23second with the Glaber-Torres injury. When we talk to fans and have that conversation about
04:27how this lineup changes, is Torres open to playing third base or anywhere else when he's healthy?
04:35We haven't even had the conversation. I don't really know why that would be a topic. I mean,
04:41Glaber's our second baseman when he's healthy. Colt, you know, moved to first and Torque
04:46obviously hit his way onto this lineup. It doesn't really change a ton, but it's not even a topic
04:53that we've covered or that we've talked about because we expect Glaber to be our second
04:56baseman. Does that change anything if Torque hits well? Because then where does Keith play,
05:01right? I mean, it's just a question that we wonder about. How do you get as many of these
05:04bats in the lineup as possible? Well, you saw it. I mean, you saw it in the first trip before
05:09Glaber got hurt. All of those guys were in the lineup every day. So I don't think it really
05:14impacts who's in the lineup or how to get the bats in the lineup. I think it impacts positioning. I
05:20mean, Karp played a little more outfield. Torque has DH'd and played first. Colt has DH'd and played
05:25first and played second. So it hasn't deterred us from getting the bats in the lineup that we want.
05:30Super excited about the way Torque hit in spring training. I'm sure you guys are as well.
05:36Early in the season, fans want to know what's different from your perspective and how reliable
05:43is it that he can be consistent in whether it's power or just being able to continue to hit and
05:49get on base? Yes. I'll tell you a funny reaction. When you started that question, I'm like,
05:54fans want to know, is he going to do this every day? Is he going to hit 550 every day? That's
06:00what I thought you were going with. I think what's different for him
06:05has been a little bit process-based in how he's preparing, how he's limiting some of the noise
06:12surrounding the offensive side of the game. I mean, he has a game plan. He's simplified it.
06:17He's taken an athletic approach where his stance is a tick different. His swing is a tick different.
06:22It's nothing that's necessarily all that notable, but there's some rhythm and timing increase,
06:27which has been good. And so you add all that up has been the real adjustment. It's not like it's
06:33a magic pill or it's something that he can, he snaps his finger and all of a sudden you're going
06:37to see this drastic change. Like now he's standing two feet open or now he is, I think everybody
06:43wants to say, aha, that's what it was. There is a maturation process. There is a little bit of
06:49process-based change. There is a little bit of a mechanical slight tweak and a confident hitter
06:56coming into the season. So I like how he came into the season and had some immediate success
07:01because I think the microscope is on this guy 24-7, but it's sustainable to the extent that
07:09he's just got to stay in the fight whenever things get a little bit less successful for him.
07:15And then he's going to have these peaks of success, which does not mean he has it all figured
07:18out. And he's found a good process that I certainly believe in, he believes in, and the production
07:25speaks for itself. I mean, he's not going to be perfect. I hope we don't hold him to that bar
07:29because it's a tough sport and it's a difficult skill, but it's hard to deny that he has been a
07:36significant breakthrough from spring training on as a potent bat in the middle of the order.
07:41Everybody loves a great redemption story and his start is exciting and encouraging for Tiger fans.
07:46Not the only No. 1 overall pick, though, that's got a little juice right now, Casey Mize. I think
07:51people are excited to see, right? This is another year beyond Tommy John and that splitter looks
07:55good. What kind of season do you project for Casey? Casey has really stepped up and grabbed
08:02this rotation spot. What I've learned about Casey in the last two years has been that he's a fighter.
08:08When you put him in the competition against other guys, he really did step up. Last year,
08:13he won the job and then he wasn't able to hold it. This season, he came in knowing full well
08:19he wasn't on this team and he needed to pitch his way onto the team. He dominated and then
08:23he carried it into his first start. It looks like the secondary pitches come with that type
08:30of finish and the sliders are both good. The split has been nasty. He's got a lot of confidence in
08:36the zone, which allows him to pound the zone and then get some swing and miss out of the zone.
08:41Again, I think he's a process-based guy and he needs to go start by start, but he's put together
08:48a very, very good foundation to have a very successful season. He has all the stuff. He has
08:54the mindset. He expects the world. Even when I took him out partway through the game the other
09:02day, I had to make sure that he didn't get too frustrated and just take negative out of that.
09:06He's done a good job of just staying grounded and staying around the strike zone. He does that,
09:11then we're going to stack good starts together. He's a formidable starting pitcher at this level.
09:18I'm excited for him because it hasn't been easy for him either through injury or the opportunity
09:23that he didn't get to be on the playoff roster last year. He doesn't want to have that taste
09:29in his mouth again. Dylan Dingler has been exciting at the plate. His numbers bear it out.
09:35How is his offensive production changing your rotation at catcher? What does that look like
09:42throughout the course of the year? I go at the course of the series. I have a hard time
09:49when I look at the macro view of the whole season. I have no idea how life's going to be
09:54in the next six months. I can tell you that series by series, I went into the season expecting a
10:01couple series are going to be Jake two out of three and a couple series are going to be Dingler
10:05two out of three. That's how it's playing out. I like Tarek and Jake working together.
10:11I like Dingler and Flaherty working together. I'm going to mix and match the rest. Then there
10:16may be a time where I flip Google and Flaherty with different catchers, just the way the schedule
10:21works. We have two formidable catchers. They have different strengths, but they both have strengths.
10:26They have different things that we're guarded against and we're going to work around those
10:31things. I still see them as two viable guys that could catch the majority of games, but somebody's
10:37going to catch more than the other. That has to play itself out more than I've labeled one of
10:43them one thing or another. They're both going to catch. As you saw last year when Carson Kelly was
10:48here, it's good when you have options and you don't feel like you're taking a step back regardless of
10:53who you put behind the play. AJ, you got a busy day. We'll get you out of here on this. Torpedo
10:57bats, how do you feel about them? I think it's funny how much love and attention they're getting.
11:05I mean, obviously I see the science behind it and it makes sense if you're going to hit the ball
11:11towards the label that the fatter the barrel is, the better. I don't think it's the perfect
11:18solution for everybody, but I think it's a copycat league and there's going to be a lot of guys that
11:22are curious if that can solve some of the issues offensively that torment players in this level.
11:28But I see it as sort of an evolution of how to combat some of the different shapes of the
11:36pitches or the different style of pitching nowadays or the velocity where you're not
11:40making perfect contact on that little small barrel that we were all accustomed to. They're
11:45legal. They're not new. These have been around for a few years. They're just now mainstream
11:50part of the conversation. It sort of makes me laugh because I think this stuff happens all the
11:55time, but I see when it's associated to being like all of a sudden a homer bat, I have a little
12:01bit of skepticism that it's going to solve 30 teams homer issues. How long would it take if
12:07somebody wanted to switch to a torpedo bat? Is there an adjustment period or as long as it weighs
12:14the same, it swings the same? So it won't be the same. So you could take the exact same bat and
12:20have it be 34-inch, 32-ounce, which is a sort of standard stock size bat and have it be the same.
12:29It's weighted different. Where the weight is, it's going to be a little bit handle heavy.
12:34There's some guys that cup their bats. That makes it a little bit more barrel friendly.
12:39If you don't cup your bat, it makes it a little bit top heavy. So the feel of the bat is you're
12:43bringing up a great point because that's what players are going to have a hard time with
12:47when it comes to any bats. Now, I've watched players go through four different model bats.
12:51They're going to chase the bat until they get hit. They definitely will try anything.
12:56And so I think it has to feel right. That's a great point because athletes need to feel
13:01like their equipment they're using is giving them the best chance. And that's why you'll
13:05see guys working into the BP and then make a determination whether or not it's a gamer.
13:11The gamer is pretty well protected, but players are unafraid to change if they think it can help
13:17them. Hey, AJ, appreciate your time today. Have fun later today at the ballpark. All right.
13:22Happy opening day. See you guys. We'll see you.