2025 Detroit Tigers prospect reports #2: SS Kevin McGonigle

The teenaged shortstop quickly proved himself a standout hitter with more pop than some forecast in his pro debut.

The Detroit Tigers’ first draft under president Scott Harris is quickly looking like a gem. After landing Max Clark with the third overall pick in 2023, they targeted prep shortstop Kevin McGonigle with their competitive balance A pick, which was 37th overall. There was plenty of debate between Clark and outfielder Wyatt Langford at the time, and yet it turns out that the best of the three players may well be McGonigle.

The shortstop’s age 19 season went incredibly well in 2024. He was one of the fastest rising prospects in the game last summer until a hamate fracture in his right hand ended his year in August. To that point, McGonigle was perhaps the best pure hitting prospect in the game under 20 years of age. He was unstoppable against A-ball pitching and is a good bet to move to Double-A pretty quickly this summer once he gets his groove back in returning to action from the injury. Even better, McGonigle showed more power potential from the jump than some expected and looks like he can stick at the shortstop position.

When McGonigle was selected the pick was met with a lot of enthusiasm. He was already pegged as a very precocious pure hitter with the ability to create the right bat angle to hit any pitch in the zone hard. Those prognostications proved very accurate as McGonigle rarely struck out and sprayed line drives and hard fly balls all over the park no matter how he was pitched. As the stuff he was seeing improved at the High-A level, he simply became a little more selective, walking a ton and striking out even less than he did at Low-A with the Lakeland Flying Tigers.

McGonigle is going to hit major league pitching, and he’s currently on the fast track to the major leagues assuming that he returns from the hamate injury without issue. He has the hand-eye coordination to get the barrel on just about anything within reach. His swing is compact, efficient, and well balanced, giving him the ability to react to pitches and create some loft while still catching a ton of balls on the sweet spot of his barrel. This was all forecast pretty accurately before his pro debut began. What really altered perceptions of him was the raw power he displayed.

He’s probably never going to be a 30 home run hitter, but McGonigle touched 111.0 mph on his hardest hit ball of the year and proved he could make a lot of hard contact in the 106-109 mph range. That was significantly better than most of the draft day scouting reports on him predicted as he graduated from Monsignor Bonner HS just outside of Philadelphia. Because McGonigle stands 5’10” and has already filled out his frame well, it was thought he wouldn’t have much room to get stronger, but he clearly didn’t get that memo. Right now he’s tracking like a left-handed, Alex Bregman type hitter who will hit for average, draw his walks, and hit for average power and possibly a little more.

There were also concerns about McGonigle’s ability to stick at shortstop on draft day. We also feel much better on that front after seeing his improvements over the 2023-2024 offseason. He has enough arm strength for the position, and that helps make up for the fact that his range and reactions are still fringy for a major league shortstop at this point. He’ll need to continue to clean up his actions and get as fundamentally sound at the position as possible, but we think he’ll eventually make an average shortstop. If not, a move to second base probably makes the most sense.

2025 outlook

We considered ranking McGonigle on the same tier as top prospect Jackson Jobe, and the only reason we’re holding off is the hand injury. Hamate fractures can be tricky, and because he got hurt on a swing rather than a fluke hit by pitch or other contact injury, there’s a little more concern. The surgery and rehab reportedly went well, so fingers crossed this is just a blip on the radar.

Kevin McGonigle is probably the best pure hitting prospect the Tigers have had for a long time. He doesn’t have Riley Greene’s power potential, but he has enough to be a solid 20-25 HR power threat based on the consistent hard contact and top line exit velocity. That’s on top of the high average and OBP he should produce. Add in solid base stealing ability and you’ve got quite a talented young player who is also known for his make-up and intense work ethic. He’s a pretty good bet to reach the majors by his 22nd birthday in August of 2026.

The Tigers will start him out back in West Michigan this season. That will give him time to put the injury behind him and get back in the swing of things. Assuming the hand is 100 percent, we don’t expect that will take very long. Instead, expect to see McGonigle in Double-A by the summer months. He’s already ready to be tested against a significantly higher caliber of pitcher. The Tigers have a really good player here and his advanced hit tool gives him much more certainty of reaching his potential than most prospects his age.