Everything A.J. Hinch said on Tigers roster, Scott Harris, Tarik Skubal

The show began at 7 p.m.

The Detroit Tigers typically promote "TigerTalk" on social media with radio play-by-play broadcaster Dan Dickerson on WXYT-FM (97.1 The Ticket) – the biggest sports radio station in Detroit. This time, however, nobody knew about the first episode ahead of the 2026 season.

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On Tuesday, Jan. 6, Dickerson and co-host Marc Ryan welcomed manager A.J. Hinch as their guest, 35 days before pitchers and catchers report to spring training Feb. 11.

Here's what Hinch said Tuesday night during the unadvertised first episode of "TigerTalk" on WXYT-FM, with questions from Dickerson and Ryan edited for clarity and conciseness:

Dickerson: Can you give fans a feel for what your day looks like and some of the works that's going on?

"There's a lot going on. The holidays really do allow for a little bit of a reset. I actually didn't talk to any of my staff for about a three- or four-day period. I gave them Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The majority of it now is we've got four-plus weeks left before players start reporting to spring training. Some will be there early. Guys get down to Florida early, especially the northern guys. There are camps going on. There are trainers heading out to watch guys throw. [Pitching coach] Chris Fetter is obviously in deep conversations with all of our guys. [Hitting coach] Michael Brdar, I spent an hour on the phone with him today. [Bench coach George] Lombard sent me a bunch of different videos. There's just so much eagerness toward getting to the spring, and you don't have any time left if you don't take advantage of this, so I had a Zoom last week with my coaches to get everybody geared toward what's ahead. Some of that is just roster building and giving an update on where we are from a team standpoint, and some of it is prep to get ready for what we expect to be a very productive spring training that leads into another successful season. Player conversations are ongoing. Tarik Skubal, I talked to today after he threw off the bullpen mound for the first time. I said goodbye to J-Hen [Justyn-Henry Malloy] today. There are just so many contact points that you have between now and the spring. We're going to take advantage of every day so we're prepped and ready to go."

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Dickerson: What's the impact of having Tarik Skubal on your pitching staff, not just on the days he starts?

"Tarik Skubal is the best pitcher in baseball. I have the easiest job in the world, which is hand him the ball and sit and watch in the dugout until he's done. There's great anticipating for a guy like Tarik. There's obviously great production out of him. You do need a full roster of guys playing at an elite level, but there's no doubt that he's the guy that leads us on the mound. He's an intense guy. He's got so much publicity and attention over the last couple of seasons, and it hasn't stopped his preparation. I love everything about Tarik. Everybody should. The reason that there are so many conversations around him, or so many curiosities around him, it's because he is on top of the sport right now – and he's a Detroit Tiger, and I love that. And I love the fact that we're going to celebrate him January 24 [at the BBWAA awards dinner]. My wife and I, Scott [Harris, president of baseball operations], Jeff [Greenberg, general manager], their wives, Chris Fetter, we're going to go to New York and watch him accept his second consecutive Cy Young. Those are special nights. I'm looking forward to seeing him in person."

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Ryan: Third base, shortstop, center field. Four players for three spots with Colt Keith, Zach McKinstry, Javier Báez and Parker Meadows. How do you see this sorting itself out?

"I love all of them. I'd throw Matt Vierling in there, too. Matt Vierling and Parker Meadows, we really missed them for a large portion of last season. Just getting a healthy Parker and a healthy Matt Vierling back, we will upgrade an already good team. That is going to create some healthy competition among the players to see who is in the lineup for the majority of these at-bats. Obviously, Javy had an All-Star-caliber first half, fell off a little bit in the second half and then was remarkable in the playoffs. Colt Keith got banged up at the end a little bit. We missed his bat in the playoffs, although he was fighting through a couple different things. Getting Gleyber [Torres] back is important. Zach McKinstry – I get asked about third base all the time. I'm like, 'Our guy made the All-Star team.' Our guy was really good. There's a lot to like about these guys. Our players don't get enough credit when you always look over the other side and start wondering if we should go out and get other guys. Our team is pretty good. We like this team. We won the most games we've won in the last 10 years. Our offense produced more runs than we have since the glory days of the 2012, 2013, 2014 Tigers teams. That's what is exciting about this team. Do we want guys to get better? Of course. We want some adjustments made by all of our guys. But the fact that we're talking about having to sort out playing time is a far cry from when I got here five years ago, and we were talking about whether or not we could get our head above water. Now we're going to have some frustrated guys who may think they should play a little bit more, but they're stuck in a role-playing situation until playing time opens up."

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Ryan: Without asking you to reveal what's inside the safe, can you bring us into the topics that are discussed between yourself and president of baseball operations Scott Harris?

"My relationship with Scott is rock solid. We are aligned in trying to lead this team to a World Series and win a World Series. We're both about winning. We're both about keeping each other sharp. One thing I would say about the manager job and the president job is I need him to be really good at his job for me to be good at my job, and he needs me to be really good at my job to execute the things that he's doing in his job. That partnership is super important. A good example might be position battles this spring. I want his opinion. I'm getting [third-base coach] Joey Cora's opinion. Billy Boyer, a new [quality control] coach of mine. We're having infield debates on where everything is going. He sees the organization from a different lens and from a different perspective, and we need that on the field to keep us sharp in our jobs. He lets me do my job. We banter back and forth. I'll come up with an idea, and he'll tell me it's crazy. He'll offer an idea, and I'm telling him he's crazy. It's part of trying to drive this organization to the highest level that we can. Right now, it's mostly about player personnel and how we're shaping up going into the spring. The other day, he texted me and asked me where I felt like we were going into the season right now. If the season started right now, where did I see the position battles in the spring, and where was I comfortable, and where was I a little bit uncomfortable? Two lefties versus three lefties [in the bullpen] versus more depth in the rotation or the bullpen. Obviously, the position battles we talk about. There are so many tradeoffs with these decisions that he makes from an organizational standpoint and so many tradeoffs that I make from an in-game management standpoint. We keep each other on our toes."

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Dickerson: You haven't really added a lot to the roster, but what can you tell us about Drew Anderson? (He signed a one-year, $7 million contract after spending the past two seasons in Korea.)

"He's become a more well-rounded pitcher. When he was with us [in spring training] a couple of years ago, we saw some raw stuff. Velocity was good. He was throwing a top-down curveball. He had power behind his stuff. He was a little bit of a hybrid starter-reliever. We sent him down to [Triple-A] Toledo, and before we had the chance to get him back in the big leagues, they came from overseas and started knocking his door down. He's got family in Japan and had a history overseas, so he wanted to go back and challenge himself to build up some endurance and be a starter, learn how to be more pitch efficient. He tweaked his stuff a little bit. He presents a real challenge for both lefties and righties. He missed some bats in [the KBO League] last year, and now we're going to give him a chance to compete back at this level. It was very competitive getting him, and we were very excited that we could land him and see where he fits on our team. It could be the rotation. He's going to come in and try to compete for the rotation. You could see him potentially do three or four different roles throughout the year, depending on our heath and depending on how our roster shakes down at the end of camp. He's good. I think our offseason has been maybe a little more productive than we've been given credit for. Kenley Jansen, the personal and professional side, just the depth that he provides in the bullpen. Getting Kyle Finnegan back, which is know is familiar with our fans, but he missed a month of the two months that he was a Tiger. He was gone, and we really did miss him a ton. Getting a full season out of him is a bigger addition than it probably looks, just because he was wearing a Tiger uniform when he pitched most recently."

Ryan: What were the conversations like with Tarik Skubal about pitching for Team USA in the 2026 World Baseball Classic?

"I think there's something different about standing in that room with your home country across your chest – and you're looking around the room and seeing the best of the best. Not everybody plays in these. There have been players who have turned it down. Team USA has always tried to put the best product out there. When you see Paul Skenes, and you see Tarik Skubal, and you see Aaron Judge and Bryce Harper sign up, you know it's a big deal to be in that room. Tarik was very forthcoming with me. We talked through it, and he had a decision to make, and he made the one that he feels is best for him – and also an experience that is arguably the most unique experiences you can have. He's been in All-Star Games, but he hasn't had a Team USA across his chest with the best in the world. We'll have a good program for him and get him worked into being ready to leave us. We'll lose a few players. I'm expecting a couple of different players. Javy Báez has always played in it [for Team Puerto Rico]. I'm sure Gleyber Torres is going to be on the list [for Team Venezuela]. We have a few coaches: George Lombard is going to be on the Team USA staff, both Joey Corea and [assistant pitching coach] Juan Nieves are going to be on the Puerto Rico staff. We're going to have a full camp until around March 1, and then we'll have to make some adjustments when we lose a number of people."

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[ MUST LISTEN: Make "Days of Roar" your go-to Tigers podcast, available anywhere you listen to podcasts (Apple, Spotify) ]

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers manager A.J. Hinch talks roster, Tarik Skubal rumors