A.J. Hinch was introduced as the new manager of the Detroit Tigers Friday afternoon after serving a season-long suspension for the Houston Astros cheating scandal.
It was a hire that was expected given the way things went between Hinch and Detroit the last 24 hours, nonetheless it was also assumed that the former Astros skipper would make his back into the MLB this season simply because he’s potentially a top-three manager in all of baseball.
Now what else was expected was all sorts of backlash from baseball traditionalists who apparently don’t believe in second chances and somehow think that what Hinch did was the most egregious thing that has ever happened in the MLB.
One of those individuals is Sam Fel of scab Deadspin (or Scabspin) who published an article Friday morning before the Hinch to Detroit deal was made official entitled “For A.J. Hinch, looks like crime does pay as Tigers’ gig looms”. Fel went on to refer to the Tigers’ as “gleeful” in their then presumed hire of Hinch and continued with the following paragraph:
The question has to be asked: what did Hinch really lose out on for being manager during the Astros’ cheating scandal (and we’ll be asking this question when Alex Cora returns to the Red Sox forthwith, reportedly)? Hinch was fired, and missed a 60-game season where just about everything was a pain in the ass for everyone, as well as a season of questions about how he would respond to the way teams would treat the Astros. He’ll face those questions at first, if and when he takes the wheel in Detroit, but eventually the Detroit media will stop asking and the national media will follow. He won’t be under scrutiny for teams throwing at his hitters, or being massively booed everywhere he and his team goes, and how he’ll react to either. Time heals all wounds (and wounds all heels, as the shoe-repair shop’s sign down the street tells me).
Deadspin
It seems like those criticizing Hinch or the Tigers for the matter fail to realize that he did lose his job with the Astros. Hinch was disgraced by baseball and had sat out an entire season because he didn’t do enough to stop the cheating. However, it’s not Hinch’s fault that the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States the way it did yet somehow Fel seems to believe that Hinch deserves a harsher punishment because the season wasn’t long enough or that “everything was a pain in the ass for everyone”.
As far as having to answer to the media for what he did, yeah that’s going to come for Hinch beginning with today when there were plenty of questions hurled at him regarding the scandal. Yet it seems like Fel wants these questions from the local and national media to continue forever.
Finally, Fel goes onto state that Hinch “be under scrutiny for teams throwing at this hitters” or having to experience massive booing everywhere he goes. I don’t know, I’m sure Hinch is going to experience booing at visiter ballparks when he steps out of the dugout to make a call to the bullpen or when he comes out to argue a call since fans will make sure they get their money’s worth for a season missed in that regard. As far as coming under scrutiny for opposing teams throwing at his hitters, well I guess Hinch escapes that and should probably be banned for life from baseball and never spoken of again because teams not being able to throw at players and Hinch not having to answer for it is the absolute worst thing in the world.
Fel then followed up with this:
Of course, and again, this is something of a measure of MLB’s and Rob Manfred’s dedication to getting new and minority blood in the manager’s office. Here’s a manager disgraced, rep tarnished, and yet he’s in a job within a year of being suspended. Carlos Beltran got fired from his job for what went on with the Astros before ever managing a game for the Mets. Where’s his name in rumors for openings?
Look, I would love for more minorities to be hired for managerial positions in the MLB, but using Carlos Beltran’s name to bolster your argument for more minority hires while simultaneously trashing the Hinch hire just goes to show that Fel is a massive fucking idiot. Beltran A. was actually one of the masterminds behind the cheating scandal and B. has zero managing experience. It was surprising he actually got that Mets job in the first place in which case you have to believe in some sense the Mets were relieved by Beltran’s connections to the scandal so they could walk back their huge mistake in hiring him in the first place. Not to mention too, Alex Cora — a minority — is probably going to be rehired by the Red Sox after serving his suspension, but you’re not hearing Fel shit on the Red Sox for doing that.
