All around the league this spring, teams are giving their top prospects opportunities to impress this spring. In many cases around the game this year, teams have left a wide open path for their top prospects to make a run at a roster spot with minimal established competition standing in their way. That’s true of everyone from Justin Crawford and Andrew Painter of the Phillies to JJ Wetherholt of the Cardinals and Carson Benge of the Mets. Top Tigers prospect Kevin McGonigle has been afforded no such luxury.
While the Tigers didn’t add anyone who explicitly blocks McGonigle at shortstop this past winter (despite a run at signing Ha-Seong Kim before he re-signed in Atlanta), they haven’t exactly made the 21-year-old’s path to the big league shortstop job an easy one. By bringing Gleyber Torres back into the fold on the qualifying offer, they added an everyday player back to their infield who would push other potential second base options like Colt Keith and Zach McKinstry elsewhere on the diamond. Keith is expected to primarily handle third base for the Tigers this year after getting a look at the position last season.
That leaves shortstop to the platoon tandem of McKinstry and Javier Baez. Both were All-Stars for the Tigers last year, with McKinstry in particular putting forward a strong season where he posted a 114 wRC+ in 144 games with 3.1 fWAR. Baez saw his numbers fall off in the second half but still served as a strong option against lefties with a .318/.336/.434 slash line in 134 trips to the plate against them. With all that said, however, it’s worth remembering that both actually made the All-Star game at other positions last year; McKinstry primarily worked at the hot corner for the Tigers last year while Baez was used as a center fielder in the first half of the season.
So, where does that leave McGonigle? It would be fair to say that he has the smoothest path to the majors possible for a player blocked by multiple All-Stars thanks to the versatility of both McKinstry and Baez. Baez could just as easily be turned to as a platoon option in center field with Parker Meadows as he could be at shortstop. McKinstry played every position on the diamond except for center field and catcher last year. He could easily get regular playing time without being the team’s everyday shortstop by simply moving back into that super utility capacity he was used in last season.
Even so, if the Tigers are going to push McKinstry out of his expected everyday role (and a valuable bench piece like Matt Vierling off the roster) they’ll surely need a compelling reason to make that call. McGonigle is doing everything he can to make that argument. The consensus #2 prospect in the sport behind Konnor Griffin not only tore up Double-A last year to the tune of a 162 wRC+ despite getting unlucky on batted ball luck with a .230 BABIP, he’s come into camp on fire. In 17 plate appearances during Spring Training so far, McGonigle has slashed .400/471/.667 with two doubles and a triple.
That’s an eye-opening performance to be sure, even in a sample size that small. With that being said, however, it would be understandable if the Tigers decided that McGonigle was best served starting the season at Triple-A instead. He’s never made an appearance at the level in his career, and in fact has just 46 games at Double-A. While Griffin has gotten the most attention for his meteoric rise, knocking on the door of the majors after just 122 MiLB games (21 at Double-A), McGonigle’s 183 games played in the minors isn’t too much higher. Another factor for the Tigers is surely the consideration of both service time and the prospect promotion incentive. If McGonigle is held down in Triple-A for even a few weeks, Detroit would have the opportunity to gain an extra year of team control over the youngster. With that said, that could backfire if McGonigle were to break out as a Rookie of the Year contender. A top-two finish in AL Rookie of the Year voting this year would guarantee him a full year of service time even if he starts the year in the minors, and winning the award would net the Tigers a draft pick if he did earn a full year of service time the old-fashioned way.
How do MLBTR readers think the Tigers will handle the shortstop position to open the year? Will they give the keys to the position to McKinstry and Baez, or will McGonigle get the opportunity to establish himself as the franchise’s future at shortstop? Have your say in the poll below:
If Griffin wasn’t generating so much buzz about potentially making the Opening Day roster without needing to go to AAA, would we be asking this about McGonigle or would your answer change?
Not because McGonigle hasn’t earned it by being outstanding so far this spring and being a great player but more so because he is not particularly needed on the Tigers’ Opening Day roster as much as Griffin is needed on the Pirates but he’s performing at a similarly high level as Griffin and causing people to say, why not him, too?
I wish MLBTR would offer ‘I have no idea’ as an option.
I wish MLBTR would list ‘I have no idea’ as an option to vote for.
Then don’t vote if you have no idea. You know, you could read the comments.
Detroit Tigers feel like the Houston Texans of Baseball these days. Questionable but I guess solid regular season where they make it through 1 Playoff Round before losing to a far superior opponent.
CJ Stoud SUCKED in the playoffs.
That’s why I’m worried about the Tigers stars in the Playoffs (Skubal/Greene). Jays might swoop in and have their way.
Going with yes for McGonigle.
I say let him get started in AAA so he plays regularly and gains some more experience and we gain that extra year of his services. While I like his hitting so far, before we get too optomistic, keep in mind that major league pitchers will make adjustments quickly….it will be interesting to see if he can adjust back.
Except there’s a pretty decent chance that the whole arbitration/years to free agency/etc is completely rethought and built from scratch in the next CBA. If there is a cap with floor/ceiling the players would demand a quicker path to free agency as a trade off. And even if no cap is agreed to there’s a strong chance that the whole service-day thing for MLB debuts is scrubbed completely so this idea of manipulation isnt even an option.
The Tigers showed with Jobe for playoff run cpl years ago they aren’t afraid to promote someone that will make them clearly a better team. Right now he is already their third best SS option at minimum and might be their second best contact hitter.
I actually think they WILL bring him up north…even though I dont think they planned to. Fact is that there isnt 13 better position players over him in camp right now.
I think he’s good enough to play in the majors now, but they’re going to start him in the minors.
Yes, because of the possible draft pick if he finishes high in ROY. But if he’s struggling, they will send him to Toledo for a while to build his confidence.
I need to see Javy Baez get to 10 walks. He can’t do that without 500 at bats.