Detroit Tigers: A.J. Hinch has to build a coaching staff to support him

While the Detroit Tigers have found their new manager in A.J. Hinch, he will still need to construct a coaching staff around himself.

The Detroit Tigers are officially moving into the offseason and working to put together the shape of the 2021 ball club, starting with the hiring of A.J. Hinch, which may have caught some flack in the process. But that is okay, winning heals all, and in due time, it will be clear that they got it right.

Up next for the Tigers, and Hinch for that matter, is assembling a coaching staff to work alongside Hinch in the dugout. As Ron Gardenhire was forced to step away from baseball as a precaution to his health in the surprising retirement during the 2020 season, remnants of his staff still show.

The coaching staff made up of Rick Anderson, Dave Clark, Lloyd McClendon, Josh Paul, Ramón Santiago, and Joe Vavra appears to be in for a shake-up. While Paul and Santiago seem to be poised as two who could stick around, others may have a different idea in mind.

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McClendon took over for Gardenhire as the interim manager and he has been a big-league manager in the past, he may be more apt to pursue other opportunities within Major League Baseball, outside of the Tigers organization.

Clark, is in a similar boat as McClendon, being someone who might move on from the Tigers with hopes to elevate to a manager job or make a lateral move to another organization. Hinch will have to build his staff and Clark will likely be heading to a new organization.

For Anderson and Vavra, it may be time to move on as well. These two have been around for a while, they were part of the regime brought in by Gardenhire, and all signs seem to point that they will be looking elsewhere for employment or hanging it up and calling it quits.

The new hires or even those kept around will likely come based on the judgment of Hinch and his plans for this staff. He will spend this offseason by assembling a coaching staff that allows this organization to develop its players and hopefully ushers in an era of winning.

Cheating aside, Hinch’s core group of Houston Astros players were built on developing and becoming the high-caliber players they are. If Hinch can assemble an exceptional coaching staff here in the Motor City, good things will happen with these young players as they make their way to the big leagues.

As the offseason presses on, hopefully, Hinch and the Tigers will make some announcements regarding his staff, giving fans an idea of what to expect in the coming years.

Hinch may even look to bring Don Kelly back to this organization, though he is a favorite to become a manager in Major League Baseball sooner than later. Kelly could re-join Hinch here in Detroit, the organization where Kelly got his post-playing career in baseball started as a scout.

Time will tell, Hinch will establish a coaching staff he feels will best help this team develop. It may take at least a year to see what they can do, and this first year is not going to be monumentally different, but things will change here in Detroit.

It may seem like a bit much to suggest, but the change can be started by Hinch and his coaching staff, with the right plan of action, they can work with these top-flight prospects to start building something special for years to come.

That being said, keep an eye on the Detroit Tigers this offseason as the rebuild starts to become less painful.