Joe Espada faces mentor A.J. Hinch

Detroit Tigers manager A.J. Hinch has kept his eye out for Astros manager Joe Espada for at least six years. Now they’re set to meet in the American League Wild Card.

They met in 1996, the year the A’s picked Espada in the second round of the draft before taking Hinch in the third round.

A little more than two decades later, Hinch hired Espada to serve as his bench coach with the Astros in 2018 after Espada served as the Yankees’ bench coach in 2017.

Soon after the World Series champion Astros knocked the Yankees out of the postseason in 2017, Hinch notified Espada that the organization wanted to talk to him for a possible vacancy in his coaching staff.

Alex Cora, who served as the Astros bench coach, was hired as the Boston Red Sox manager following the 2017 season. Hinch then hired Espada to his coaching staff.

A.J. Hinch praises Joe Espada

“He came with an incredible work ethic,” Hinch said of Espada. “At the time, we had three of the same four incredibly, talented infielders, which is Joe’s specialty. He has a tremendous work ethic to push guys to be better.

“He made guys better.”

Hinch credits Espada with making Carlos Correa, Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve better.

“His consistency and his relationship with players was very important to me,” Hinch said of Espada.

More from Our Esquina

Astros make right move, extend icon Jose Altuve

Salvador Perez guides Royals on playoff chase

Astros manager Joe Espada: ‘Here we come’

Astros owner Jim Crane fired Hinch before the 2020 season in the aftermath of the Astros’ cheating scandal tied to the 2017 season. Espada continued as the Astros’ bench coach for four more seasons under manager Dusty Baker.

After Baker retired, Astros general manager Dana Brown promoted Espada as the franchise’ 25th manager.

The Astros’ first-year manager has guided the Astros back to the postseason after an abysmal 7-19 start. Espada will manage his first postseason game Tuesday in Game 1 of the best-of-three Wild Card series against his former boss and the Tigers at Minute Maid Park.

”A good friend’

“I’m looking forward to it,” Joe Espada said of managing against Hinch. “He’s a good friend. We have spent a lot of our time together. I’ve learned a lot from A.J., but I think this series is about the Astros against the Tigers. They’re playing good baseball. I’m just really looking forward to a really good series.”

Hinch has continued to stay in touch with Espada throughout this season. However, both managers will more than likely not talk to one another much during this series. Nevertheless, it’ll be an exciting time for Espada and Hinch to reminisce back on how they got here.

“Not sure how much we’ll talk in the next 72 hours, but there will be a moment,” Hinch said. “Maybe it’s exchanging lineup cards, maybe it’s behind the cage, maybe it’s crossing paths in this media stuff.

“I’ll get a chance to congratulate him in person because it’s fun to see a person grow in a job that he’s really wanted for a long time.”