It's time for voters to recognize Tigers' AJ Hinch as 2024 Manager of the Year

As we barrel toward the last week of the regular season, with the Tigers 1.5 games out of a Wild Card spot (2.5, if you count the tiebreaker necessary to edge out the Twins), it's become pretty clear what their best offseason move was.

It wasn't signing Jack Flaherty, who gave Detroit an incredible bounce-back season before being traded to the Dodgers. It wasn't extending Colt Keith before he'd even taken a major league at-bat, even though he should be in the conversation for AL Rookie of the Year. It certainly wasn't signing Kenta Maeda.

No, the Tigers' best money move was extending manager AJ Hinch at least through the 2026 season.

Hinch's initial arrival in Detroit 2021 raised some eyebrows; after all, he was coming off of a year-long suspension from baseball for his role in the Astros' sign-stealing scandal as their World Series-winning manager in 2017. Although Hinch had not been a part of coming up with or participating in the system, anyone who was involved with the Astros that year will always struggle to get out from under the mess that followed.

Hinch's first two years with the Tigers were more of the same, which is to say, they were mediocre or worse. However, the future started to look brighter last season, when the Tigers finished with a losing record but still placed second in the AL Central, their best finish since 2016.

This year, the Tigers have fought their way from being a sub-.500 team until late August to seriously competing for a postseason appearance in the last weeks of the season.

AJ Hinch is becoming a real contender for AL Manager of the Year as Tigers surge toward playoffs

The Tigers have already fared a lot better than the Twins in August, and Detroit's remaining strength of schedule suggests an easier road ahead for them than Minnesota. Detroit's young core is certainly playing like the postseason is just within their sights, notching a come-from-behind victory vs the Royals on Monday and taking two out of three against the mighty Orioles at Comerica.

Hinch has managed to wrangle all of the young guys and rookies and turn them into a competitive team, but perhaps the strongest argument he has is how the Tigers have dealt with a starter deficiency over the last month. With Casey Mize and Reese Olson back, the Tigers rotation is mostly restored, but August — without Mize, Olson, and with Flaherty traded — could've been devastating for a team that was putting openers on the mound much more often than actual starters.

Back then, Hinch said the Tigers had a plan, which sort of felt like a lie, but the openers' success has actually proven him right. There could definitely be some luck involved, but it's lasted so long now that good fortune only feels like a small part of it.

Even if the Tigers flame out in the Wild Card round, just getting there at all will be a miracle. Getting as close as they are now is a miracle. Hinch has guided the Tigers through a storm this season, and that shouldn't be disregarded when it's time for the BBWAA to vote in November.