Why A.J. Hinch delivered bad news to 2 Detroit Tigers top prospects so early in spring

LAKELAND, Fla. — With a roster of young players, and another group pushing through the minor leagues, the Detroit Tigers are in an interesting position.

They have to keep one foot in the present — the other in the future. This teeter-totter dance plays out in just about every decision.

On Tuesday, Tigers manager A.J. Hinch told Ty Madden, one of the team’s top pitching prospects, that he will not make the Opening Day roster.

Neither will Jackson Jobe, the top pitching prospect.

“I'll tell Jackson probably today,” Hinch said Wednesday morning, moments before the Tigers pitchers and catchers went through their first official practice.

It’s not, in any way, a surprise. Neither is ready for the big leagues.

But it’s the earliest Hinch could ever remember telling a couple players they are not going north — before the first official practice.

Both Jobe and Madden will remain in the Tigers big league camp, which is part of the long-term plan.

“That's simply because they're here to soak up a lot of things,” Hinch said.

For the future.

Hinch wants these two prospects to get comfortable in the clubhouse and around the coaching staff. To see how the veterans prepare and train. To be in the morning meetings. To get comfortable throwing bullpens in front of big leaguers. To learn all the names and faces. To feel the vibe. To focus on everything other than trying to make the club.

Because, one day, they will.

One day they will need to feel comfortable when they walk into that clubhouse in Comerica Park.

Just not yet.

This shows how Hinch is honest and open with his players — honest to a fault. He is a master communicator, a master on getting the players to focus on the right things.

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But that’s also a reflection of the talent on the Tigers’ roster.

“We're going to have a good, competitive camp,” Hinch said. “It's a harder team to make than I've ever had from the pitching standpoint. It starts today. Nobody's gonna win a job or lose a job today, but everything matters.”

Creating a safety net

One foot in the present — the other in the future.

That concept has played out across the roster.

“It's going to be one of the youngest position playing groups in all of baseball,” Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris said Wednesday.

You know what happens with young players?

They struggle at times. It’s inevitable. We saw it with Spencer Torkelson and Riley Greene, and it’s bound to happen to Colt Keith and Justyn-Henry Malloy, whenever they arrive.

And, shoot, it’s bound to happen to Parker Meadows, who has yet to play a full MLB season.

So this team has been built to try to minimize that.

“Coming into this year, we knew that we are going to have a lot of young hitters populating our lineup,” Harris said. “We should expect these young hitters to struggle at times. We should be expecting the offense to sputter at times.”

He has tried to build a strong pitching staff to keep games close when the young bats go cold.

And he brought in Mark Canha, not just for what he might do in the games, but for his presence and influence on the young players.

“We have to create the right influences around them,” Harris said. “That's why Mark Canha's here.”

Canha, who turns 35 on Thursday, is entering his 10th major league season.

“He's going to be that steady presence that helps them learn how to produce consistent, major league quality at-bats every night," Harris said.

At the same time, Harris didn’t want to bring in too many veterans.

He didn’t want to create any roadblocks for the other prospects in the minor leagues.

“We have to give these guys runway,” Harris said. “We have to commit to these young hitters because it's in the best interest of the organization both in the short term and the long term.”

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Creating expectations

If nothing else, Hinch and Harris are in lockstep.

They even sound the same.

When asked about the expectations of this season, Hinch jumped back into one of his consistent messages: focus on the next practice, the next game.

Not the big picture.

“We haven't really earned it,” he said. “We haven't played any games. The end of the season review comes at the end of the season, not at the beginning.”

A few hours later, Harris said essentially the same thing.

“Candidly, we haven't earned the right to talk about division titles or playoff berths,” Harris said. “We have to focus on getting a lot better over the next six weeks. We have to focus on outlining for our players how they can get better as individuals because if they get better as individuals, we're going to stack those gains and we're gonna get a lot better as a team.”

At the first team meeting on Wednesday, featuring just the pitchers and catchers, Hinch set a tone, focusing in improvement, not outcomes or records.

“I just wanted to let them know I care about them," Hinch said. "I love them. We're about to kickstart a lot of time together. We have a lot of areas to get better and a lot of things to address and the goal of camp is be ready on day one. It's not, 'be ready on February 14 or be ready tomorrow.' We need to just keep taking steps forward.”

Not just this season.

But beyond that teeter-totter.

Contact Jeff Seidel at jseidel@freepress.com or follow him @seideljeff.

To read Seidel's recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/jeff-seidel.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: How Detroit Tigers are trying to win now, invest in future at same time