Skubal named AL Cy Young finalist; Hinch up for MOY

The Tigers’ late-season charge to their first winning campaign since 2016 and first playoff series win since 2013 has a chance to earn some hardware for two key members. Tarik Skubal and A.J. Hinch were announced on Monday as finalists for the American League Cy Young Award and AL Manager of the Year Award, respectively.

• Finalists for MVP, Cy Young, Rookie & Manager of the Year revealed

Hinch is part of an entirely AL Central field for Manager of the Year, joining Kansas City’s Matt Quatraro and Cleveland’s Stephen Vogt, with the winner to be announced Nov. 19. Skubal is the overwhelming favorite to win the Cy Young, which will be announced Nov. 20 from an all-Central field that includes Royals ace Seth Lugo and Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase. Both will be revealed on MLB Network at 6 p.m. ET.

Skubal won the MLB Players Choice Award for AL Pitcher of the Year, and he was a unanimous selection for Tiger of the Year by members of the Detroit chapter of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. He’s in line to become the first Tiger to win the Cy Young Award since Max Scherzer in 2013.

• All-time Cy Young Award winners

Skubal’s impact on the Tigers’ first postseason berth since 2014 cannot be overstated. While Hinch turned “pitching chaos” into a rallying cry – riding a series of bullpen games, openers and bulk relievers – Skubal was the constant at the top of the rotation. For some stretches, he basically was the rotation, sometimes as its only traditional starter, other times paired with rookie Keider Montero.

While a hitter can impact a team just about every day, a starting pitcher has a mere fraction of a season to do that. The Tigers went 21-10 in Skubal’s starts, but just 65-66 over the rest of the season.

“He's been everything to us,” Hinch said during the AL Division Series.

Skubal’s 18 wins were the most by a Tiger since Scherzer in 2014. His 2.39 ERA was the lowest by a qualified Detroit starter since Mark Fidrych (2.34) in his incredible rookie season of 1976. Skubal’s 5.9 fWAR trails only Justin Verlander’s 2009 and 2010 seasons for highest by a Tiger in his age-27 season or younger since 1971. His 6.3 bWAR not only led MLB pitchers, it ranked seventh among all AL players.

"When you see special seasons like this, the hardest thing to do for all of us is to put it in proper context while you're watching it," Hinch said at the end of the regular season. "Think about Miguel Cabrera's Triple Crown, like how incredible that was. And now put it in perspective of his entire career, and we have a whole new perspective. We're going to look at Tarik's year much differently five years from now, 10 years from now, when that list is still short.”

Hinch has never won Manager of the Year. He finished second for the AL honor in 2015, when he led Houston to its first postseason berth in a decade. He finished third in 2017, the year he led the Astros to their first World Series title. He received votes three other times, including a third-place vote in 2021, his first season managing the Tigers.

• All-time Manager of the Year Award winners

Hinch’s Tigers had the lowest finish of the three MOY finalists, but they had the hottest closing stretch to join them in the playoffs. The Tigers stood at 55-63 and 10 games out of a Wild Card spot on Aug. 10, and they were less than two weeks removed from a selling spree that sent veterans Jack Flaherty, Andrew Chafin, Mark Canha and Carson Kelly away at the Trade Deadline. Detroit went 31-13 from there, passing five teams to slide into the third AL Wild Card spot.

Hinch’s influence was all over the run, from his frenetic mixing and matching of pitchers in a depleted rotation to his motivational leadership in what became one of baseball’s youngest clubhouses during the stretch run.

Around that low point in late August, Hinch met with the club and posed a question: What kind of team do you want to be?

From there, the Tigers’ pitching strategy rose. So did Detroit’s youth movement, with the arrivals of rookies Trey Sweeney, Jace Jung, Brant Hurter and Ty Madden.

“Buy-in's not for free,” Hinch said. “You've got to get players to understand the bigger goal. You've got to get players to understand how we're going to maximize their strengths. You've got to have players that will give up something in order for another person to have an opportunity.”

No Tiger has won Manager of the Year since 2006, when Jim Leyland led Detroit to the World Series. The only other Tiger to win the award was Sparky Anderson, who won it in 1984 and 1987.