Sunday was the Detroit Tigers’ 66th game of the season. Rookie Kevin McGonigle has played in 63 of them. As you will recall, McGonigle made a name for himself during spring training, and made it impossible for Detroit to leave him off their Opening Day roster.
Through his first 18 games, McGonigle slashed .313/.421/.484 while playing both shortstop and third base. It was with that prologue that the team decided to make the 21-year-old a hundred millionaire, signing him to an eight-year, $150 million contract.
The money has not gone to his head. He did hit a rough patch for a few games, which brought him back to earth a bit when major league pitchers started to get a book on him. But like all great hitters, he adjusted. After those first 18 games, he has slashed .283/.383/.405. But, better yet, he has gotten a hit in 35 of those 45 games, including a 13-game hitting streak and a current seven-gamer. On Sunday, he had a homer (his fourth on the year) and a walk-off single to beat the Mariners.
In his first few big league games, manager A.J. Hinch had McGonigle hitting in the #6 slot. The current conventional wisdom in MLB is that your best hitter should bat second, so Hinch moved the rookie there before he had finished his first week was done. He has essentially bounced back and forth between leadoff and #2 in every game since. McGonigle is getting on base at nearly a 40% clip (.394), which ranks 6th in the American League, behind guys like Nick Kurtz and Yordan Alvarez.
It is hard not to be wowed by someone who had four hits in his major league debut, got robbed of his first home run the next day, and has hit safely 48 of the 62 games in which he has started.
On a team with young players and some veterans, the kid barely old enough to drink leads the team in runs scored with 40, is second (to Riley Greene) in hits (69) and doubles (14), leads in triples with three, and shockingly is fourth on the team in RBI. He has walked more than he has struck out (38 vs. 36), and, why not, leads the team in stolen bases.
On the defensive side of the ledger, at shortstop he only ranks 24th among 35 players on Baseball Savant’s “Outs Above Average” metric, but he is ahead of the likes of Trea Turner, Bo Bichette, Corey Seager, and fellow rookie wunderkind Konnor Griffin. He has made just four errors in 124 chances at short, while recording 80 assists and turning 19 double plays. In 76 chances at third, he has made just a single error.
After McGonigle’s walk-off single on Sunday, Hinch said about his rookie, “He’s never not going to do damage. He can do it all.”
In the fourth inning Sunday, the infielder (he played both short and third in this game) hit an 86-mph slider 420-feet into the right field bleachers. And with the game on the line in the bottom of the ninth inning, the Tigers trailing 4-3 with runners on second and third and two outs, with the Mariners closer Andrés Muñoz on the mound, McGonigle laced a 99-mph fastball 101-mph off second baseman Cole Young’s glove into right field to score two and secure the win for Detroit.
Tigers’ ace and back-to-back Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal went on the injured list on May 4th with the club in first place in the American League Central Division. They then proceeded to go 4-21, fall out of any race, and become fodder for a massive sell-off come the trade deadline. Chief among the parts: Skubal, who is quickly working his way back to the mound.
But since the calendar turned to June, Detroit is 5-1. Even with this mini-run, they still find themselves tied for last place in the division with the Kansas City Royals, 9.5 games out of first. Considering that the third Wild Card team is currently under .500 (Texas, with a record of 32-33), and the team ahead of the Rangers is the Chicago White Sox, it seems like this season anyone in the AL could grab a Wild Card spot. Detroit finds itself just 5.5 games out of the hunt, with 96 still to be played; and many of those will be with arguably the best pitcher on the planet taking the hill every fifth day. (And, not to be discounted, Skubal will be a pitcher with something to prove coming off an injury and headed into free agency.)
This run by Detroit, led by McGonigle who is hitting .350 during the stretch, could get them back into contention. Or it all could be a mirage. Either way, the rookie will continue to hit, will continue to make a name for himself in the Motor City, will continue to burnish his potential Rookie of the Year resume, and will give Tigers fans something to look forward to, regardless of how this season ends.
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