Chicago — It’s been another disastrous series for the Tigers. They’ve dropped eight consecutive series, and were trying to avoid a sweep by the White Sox at Rate Field on Sunday.
The Tigers entered Sunday with a 22-37 record, tied with the Colorado Rockies for the worst record in Major League Baseball.
Here are five of the questions I asked Tigers manager AJ Hinch during the series in Chicago:
How much are injuries to blame for the Tigers’ struggles?
Asked before Friday’s game.
“I’ve never had a team that’s faced this much sort of injury struggles. When you lose half your team at some point, we’ve made a ton of IL (injury list) movement, it doesn’t feel good, it doesn’t look good, we’re always searching for answers. But we’re never going to use it as an excuse. Is it part of it? Of course it is. When you lose Kerry Carpenter (who returned Sunday) and Gleyber Torres and Javy Báez, two of those three made an All-Star team (in 2025) and it won’t shock me when Kerry makes one at some point. Our rotation that we talked a ton about all spring, we were so excited about that, we had one time through the order and then it’s been piecing it together.
“Bullpen hasn’t been fully intact really since the beginning. We have the excuse if we choose to use it. I think it’s part of it, but I still have to find the resolve to win some games despite the injury stuff, because in the end the guys that are here, we’ve gotta find a way to get more out of them as a coaching staff. We’ve gotta find a way to get them contributing to the level that they should. … I know that’s not the perfect answer, because there’s a lot of reasons why we’ve gotta where we’ve gotten, but this same group and the group that’s come off the injured list is going to be the same group that’s going to help us dig out of it one game at a time.”
How much are you talking to Tigers president Scott Harris?
Asked before Sunday’s game.
“Even when things are good or bad, sometimes it might be once, sometimes it might be 15 checkpoints, depending on what things are going on. … It wouldn’t be right to describe it as always even being about one aspect of the game. Like, we have 15 guys on the injured list, so I’ve gotta talk to him about different stages of that multiple times. … I don’t want it to be like he doesn’t talk to me on the days that we’re bad and he talks to me on the days we’re good. That’s not true. That’s like great for a movie, bad for accuracy. … There’s been days that we’ve been really, really, really good, he’s been gone. … The theatrical thing of we have to talk like 100 (times).
“We are constantly, on the front end and on the back of end of things, trying to search for solutions, so it’s not a lack of urgency or a lack of effort or time. All of us I think get all-consumed by this. It’s natural for that to be more consuming when things are struggling. But there aren’t a lot of off-nights in communication when we won 10 straight or when we were in the playoffs (either).”
What’s your message to the team?
Asked after Saturday’s game.
“We’re gonna keep playing. Listen, we have dug this hole deeper every day it feels like. We prepare, we’re disappointed, we’re frustrated. Nothing matters now except for the next day’s game. … It’s hard to process the depth of the hole that we’re in, and we continue to dig it deeper, so we’ve gotta do some things better, we’ve gotta have a ton of toughness. We’re going to have to block out a lot of noise because I know this season has made a lot of people frustrated, including every single person that wears this uniform.”
Do you feel like you’re out of answers?
Asked after Saturday’s game.
“I don’t ever want to concede and feel like we’re out of answers. I know some of these games are sort of rinse and repeat and it feels like it’s the same thing. These guys are battling. We’re going to stay together. The worst thing we can do is start pointing fingers and start assessing blame. And we’ve gotta find solutions. Am I tired of talking about the same type of game? Of course. We’re all very frustrated, but there’s no quit in me, there’s no quit in us, and tomorrow can be a better day.”
Is this a numb feeling at this point?
Asked after Friday’s game.
“It’s not numb because it still hurts. Obviously, we want to win every game. We want to win as many games as we can, and we’re having a hard time. … It’s not a great feeling.”
tpaul@detroitnews.com
@tonypaul1984
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Tigers manager AJ Hinch isn’t out of answers; he’s short on solutions
Reporting by Tony Paul, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
