Slideshow A.J. Hinch. Photo by Rod Searcey/Stanford Athletics. Previous Next

A.J. Hinch was never in the running to take over the Stanford baseball program when Mark Marquess retired following the 2017 season.

"I have a pretty good thing going here," Hinch said while the Houston Astros were in Oakland this past summer.

The Stanford grad still has a lot of ties to his former school. He's just not ready to give up his day job.

Hinch's first job as a manager, with the Arizona Diamondbacks, ended in a mid-season dismissal. But he's always possessed a sharp baseball mind and he kept at it, and continued to learn.

He was drafted twice before getting his Stanford degree in psychology and then signed with the Oakland Athletics after being drafted a third time, where he made his major-league debut in 1998.