Tigers' division rivalries set to intensify over 2024 Manager of the Year race

After leading the Detroit Tigers to their first winning season since 2016 and first playoff series win since 2013, manager AJ Hinch has the chance to take home some hardware at the end of a magical 2024 campaign.

Hinch is one of three finalists – all from the American League Central Division – for the AL Manager of the Year Award, joining Matt Quatraro of the Kansas City Royals and Stephen Vogt of the Cleveland Guardians.

Under Hinch's leadership, the Tigers finished the regular season 86-76 and earned the third AL Wild Card berth. After selling off a handful of key veterans at the trade deadline, the Tigers eliminated a 10-game deficit to finish the season on a 31-13 run with one of the youngest, least experienced rosters in baseball.

Hinch's fingerprints were all over the Tigers' late-season surge, particularly in his management of the team's injury-depleted pitching rotation and his ability to get the most out of the rookies who arrived en masse as part of an accelerated youth movement for the club after the trade deadline.

AL Central rivalries will intensify if AJ Hinch doesn't take home 2024 Manager of the Year

Entering the 2024 season, the Tigers weren't expected to be part of the playoff conversation – or even close to it, really. Compared to AL Central rivals Kansas City and Cleveland, and even the Minnesota Twins, Detroit was the division's redheaded stepchild – not in the basement with the lowly Chicago White Sox, but not quite good enough to compete for a division title with the rest of the big dogs. Under Hinch's leadership, that all changed.

The 2024 campaign saw the Tigers' competitive window burst open; they are one of the big dogs in the AL Central now. The Tigers may have finished third in the division, behind Cleveland and Kansas City, but they put the rest of the league on notice thanks in large part to Hinch's creative and motivational leadership. He did more with less to captain once of the least likely turnarounds in modern history. That's what should count.

The Tigers already have their sights set on an AL Central title in 2025, something that felt impossible as recently as a year ago. If Hinch doesn't take home the AL Manager of the Year Award Nov. 19, it will be a grave injustice, and Tigers fans will be enraged.

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