Two leaders of the Detroit Tigers — manager A.J. Hinch and president of baseball operations Scott Harris — had a playful moment during an end-of-season news conference with reporters.

After the 49-year-old manager pledged his commitment to the Tigers, the 36-year-old top executive was asked for his thoughts on working with Hinch coming off their first full season together.

The banter between them seemed organic.

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"Oh boy," Hinch said.

"You want to take this one?" Harris said, smiling.

"So, Scott thinks I'm great," Hinch said, laughing along with the group of reporters. "He especially likes it when I come in after the game and have a few choice words for certain aspects of the game, and perhaps some disagreements that I'm proven right, I definitely tell him about it after our game."

Harris smiled.

Then, he answered the question.

"Hopefully, you can see that it's been a great first year between us," Harris said Monday in the Tiger Club at Comerica Park. "I can confidently say that he has made me better. I am much better at this job now after the relationship that I've had with him. We've had challenging conversations before and after every game. He has challenged me to think differently about our team, think different about ways to get better, think differently about who to give opportunity to based on the different perspective that he has in the clubhouse."

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The Tigers, under former general manager Al Avila, hired Hinch in October 2020, soon after his one-season suspension by MLB, for the Houston Astros' cheating scandal, came to an end. He has a 221-265 record over three seasons, including a 78-84 record (and a second-place finish in the American League Central) in the 2023 campaign.

He is reportedly under contract through the 2025 season.

In 2023, the Tigers were eliminated from postseason contention during a Sept. 23 game against the Oakland Athletics because the Minnesota Twins officially clinched the AL Central. The next morning, Hinch delivered an elimination day speech to his players and coaches in a closed-door team meeting.

Part of his speech addressed that he's "never been more encouraged to be a Tiger" as a result of the organization's trajectory. The Tigers, thanks to Hinch and his coaching staff, were successful in developing Kerry Carpenter, Spencer Torkelson and Riley Greene into middle-of-the-order threats.

"I've had different experiences over those three years," Hinch said. "This year feels like my first year, given new boss structure, new things coming into the organization, new emphasis on different things and creating a work relationship with the president of baseball ops to try to get us to contention. I've never been more encouraged to be here and to be the manager."

With Hinch's leadership, the Tigers developed a winning culture through playing hard in every game and trying to win from late March to early October. The Tigers didn't win enough games, but the players refused to wave the white flag and ended up in second place in the division.

Players seemed to buy into Hinch's chess match, in which he used pitch-hitters more often than ever before in his career. He might not be able to set a consistent lineup for every game (barring injuries) until at least the 2025 season.

"I know these are not easy jobs to get, and they're not easy jobs to keep," said Hinch, who has managed 1,508 games for three teams over his 10-year career. "I'm especially proud of where we're getting to with our players to where they understand me at a deeper level. We're all in trenches together in the culture that we create."

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When the Tigers hired Harris, some of his former colleagues and some of the agents he negotiated with in the past pinpointed his subtle humor as an important piece of his interpersonal skills. Harris showed that version of him publicly, maybe for the first time, in the back-and-forth banter with Hinch throughout the end-of-season news conference. He joked around again before he finished praising his manager.

"I'd like to say that I made him better, too," Harris said. "He'll never it admit it."

"OK, I'll do it," Hinch said. "He made me better."

It sounds like a great partnership.

More importantly, Hinch is thrilled, proud and honored to manage the Tigers, even after three losing seasons.

"I know I have a lot of expectations on me to do my part to be better," Hinch said. "We're not where we want to get to. We're trying to get there as fast as possible. I hope that our fans, our front office, our ownership understand the positive step forward that we took on the field this year is very important. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else."

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

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers, A.J. Hinch seem ready for season No. 4 together in 2024