A. J. Hinch

A. J. Hinch was a catcher who was the 1992 Gatorade Player of the Year in high school baseball. He was drafted in the second round of the MLB draft out of high school, but elected to attend Stanford where he was a third-round pick after both his junior and senior seasons. After his senior season he joined the USA National team that won a bronze medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and then joined the Oakland Athletics farm system.

Hinch eventually played for nine seasons in the bigs, with the Athletics from 1998–2000, the Kansas City Royals from 2001–2002, the Detroit Tigers in 2003, and finishing his career with a final season with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2004. He played in Triple A in 2005 before retiring. Hinch then was named manager of minor league operations for the Arizona Diamondbacks. In 2006 he was promoted to director of player development. He became the Diamondbacks manager in May 2009 and managed them for 1½ years before being fired.

After leaving Arizona, Hinch worked as vice-president of professional scouting with the San Diego Padres for a few years. In 2014 he was named the manager of the Houston Astros, and in 2017 he led them to the World Series championship. He remained as manager of the Astros into the 2019 season.