My point is that the entire discussion for the past 15 months about AJ and his relationship with the Tigers has been among this fan base has been framed on speculation that ultimately may not even be true. And had said speculation not happened, we wouldn't even be having this discussion.
To be clear, I'm not defending the Tigers either, maybe they could be a little more transparent about the contract status of their management team. But even setting aside the comment about the opt out, Rosenthal's reporting pretty clearly states that AJ Hinch is under contract through 2025 (and attributed to 'sources', not Avila himself). I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that Rosenthal doesn't report this stuff if he doesn't believe it's accurate.