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Astros hire A.J. Hinch as new manager

Mike Oz
(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

Cross one job off the list of open MLB managerial positions.

The Houston Astros have introduced A.J. Hinch as their new manager at a Monday press conference. Hinch is the club's 22nd manager and takes over for Bo Porter, who was fired Sept. 1. The Astros interviewed a number of candidates for the job, both internal and external, but Hinch was their man.

Hinch previously managed the Arizona Diamondbacks for parts of 2009 and 2010. He was only 34 when hired by the D-backs, and went 89-123 as their skipper. Hinch was a catcher for the Oakland Athletics and Kansas City Royals, among others, in his six-year playing career.

After getting the axe in Arizona, he joined the San Diego Padres as their vice president of scouting. He held that job for nearly four years, also becoming the team's assistant general manager. Hinch resigned in August when the Padres fired GM Josh Byrnes.

Interestingly, Hinch will still be the youngest manager in MLB. He's 40, two years younger than Porter, who was previously the youngest manager in the league. Porter's tenure in Houston ended after he reportedly clashed with Astros GM Jeff Luhnow.

Bo Porter was fired by the Astros before the end of his second season as skipper. (AP)
Bo Porter was fired by the Astros before the end of his second season as skipper. (AP)

Hinch, presumably, sees eye to eye with Luhnow. Hinch is a smart guy, who graduated from Stanford with a degree in psychology and seems to match the analytics-minded Astros. After losing his job, Porter maintained he was on board with the new-age thinking of the Astros, though some theories suggested that's what caused the friction between he and Luhnow.

Whatever the past beef, both Hinch and the Astros are in the same place — looking for redemption and better performance in the future. The Astros went 70-92 in 2014 after three straight 100-loss seasons. It's not a huge jump, but it's something. With a few promising young players already performing at the big-league level, and more on the way, the Astros look like they'll be even better in 2015.

Sports Illustrated wrote earlier this year that the Astros would be World Series champs by 2017. Hear that, A.J.? The pressure is already on.

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Mike Oz is an editor for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!