Top prospect Kevin McGonigle named Tigers' opening day shortstop
One of MLB's top prospects will start on Opening Day for the Detroit Tigers.
The future is now for Kevin McGonigle. The consensus No. 2 prospect in Major League Baseball has done the near-impossible: Win the starting shortstop job on a veteran-laden team coming off a playoff appearance.
The Detroit Tigers announced March 24 that McGonigle will make their opening-day roster, and if the 21-year-old is in Detroit, it's not to sit the bench. Drafted 37th overall in 2023, McGonigle won the job outright in spring training, posting a . 923 OPS with two homers and impressing both Detroit brass and his teammates with his field presence.
At 5-foot-9, 187 pounds, McGonigle is not the potential aircraft carrier that No. 1 prospect Konnor Griffin , the Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop, embodies. Yet it will be McGonigle debuting at the game's highest level while the Pirates send Griffin to Class AAA.
He won the job over veteran utilityman Zach McKinstry and former All-Star Javy Baez. It certainly raises the ceiling for a position in which the Tigers trotted out McKinstry, Trey Sweeney and others over the past two years while making runs to the American League Division Series. Kevin McGonigle stats McGonigle has a career .