ORLANDO, Fla. — The decisions by Jack Flaherty and Gleyber Torres to return to the Detroit Tigers in 2026 were, at least to some degree, driven by financial considerations.

But Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said there’s no another factor that shouldn’t be overlooked: They both really wanted to return.

Flaherty unexpectedly exercised his $20 million player option for 2026. A few days later, Torres accepted a one-year qualifying offer worth about $23 million. That was also considered a mild surprise.

“I’m not surprised,” Hinch said Tuesday. “He came back because he liked it here. Obviously, I get to stay away from contracts and things like that. He confided in me that he loved it in Detroit, and he wanted to come back. And then the business side of the game takes care of itself.

“So he texted me right away and told me what his intent was the morning of the Q.O. stuff. And I was thrilled. I mean, who doesn’t want to add the quality at-bat, the presence, the on-base skills, the contact skills? He’s thirsty to win.”

Torres, who turns 29 this week, spent parts of seven seasons with the New York Yankees before signing a one-year, $15 million deal with the Tigers last winter.

He had an All-Star season in 2025 but saw his offensive numbers fall off sharply down the stretch. After the season, he revealed that he had been playing through a hernia injury that ultimately required surgery, although he is expected to be ready for spring training.

“I think the tale of the two seasons is pretty easy to identify — when he got hurt and how much it was bothering him through the end of the year,” Hinch said. “He played through incredible pain and did that for the group at a volatile time of our season and then into the offseason.

“So Gleyber’s impact for us exceeded his performance because he brought it every single day. This guy loves to post and play. And he loved his time in Detroit. His family loved it. It didn’t surprise me.”

Flaherty, 30, is coming off an inconsistent 2025 campaign, finishing with a 4.64 ERA in 161 innings in 2025. But a closer look reveals some nuance. His 3.85 FIP (nearly a run lower than his ERA) suggests some bad luck. His strikeout rate of 27.6 percent was down only slightly from last year, and his walk rate of 8.7 percent was modestly higher.

“We’re not looking into the rearview mirror to try to capture some moment in time as much as we’re trying to identify what he does well and enhance it,” Hinch said of Flaherty. “Jack’s another example of players who want to be here. He had choices. He could have done whatever he wanted at the end of this contract, and he chose to come back. And that’s meaningful for our group and our team.

“On the baseball front, we’re going to continue to chip away at the things that he does really well. I saw him take the ball late in the season with the season on the line, with incredible guts.”