{"id":561579,"date":"2026-03-24T17:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T17:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/561579\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T17:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T17:43:09","slug":"tigers-phenom-kevin-mcgonigle-to-be-on-opening-day-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/561579\/","title":{"rendered":"Tigers phenom Kevin McGonigle to be on Opening Day roster"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a data-clubhouse-guid=\"b27c64bf-4f18-f713-ba06-db1bce2394e7\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com.au\/mlb\/team\/_\/name\/det\/detroit-tigers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Detroit Tigers<\/a> phenom <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/player\/_\/id\/5149072\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kevin McGonigle<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com.au\/mlb\/story\/_\/id\/47684202\/top-100-mlb-prospects-2026-kiley-mcdaniel-konnor-griffin-kevin-mcgonigle-jesus-made\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ESPN&#8217;s No. 2 prospect<\/a> for the 2026 season, will be on the Opening Day roster, it was announced Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>The 21-year-old McGonigle, an infielder with an above-average bat and real baserunning\/defensive value, was the 37th pick in the 2023 draft and has never played above the Double-A level, where he only saw action in 46 games last season.<\/p>\n<p>Editor&#8217;s Picks<\/p>\n<p>2 Related<\/p>\n<p>He has had a solid spring training, hitting .250 with 2 home runs, 6 RBIs, 11 walks and 2 stolen bases in 44 at-bats. He also hit a 461-foot home run off Dominican Republic pitcher <a data-player-guid=\"be1396f1-958a-6c37-0cb1-a78e75378a50\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/player\/_\/id\/33263\/luis-severino\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Luis Severino<\/a> in an exhibition prior to the World Baseball Classic. Defensively, he saw action this spring at shortstop (10 games) and third base (7).<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He knows the strike zone,&#8221; Tigers manager Hinch said this week. &#8220;Guys who know the strike zone are going to have a good chance to be the best version of themselves faster. With Kevin, he&#8217;s versatile &#8212; he plays more positions than <a data-player-guid=\"3e8ded2a-d813-324d-5925-28149ef72a30\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/player\/_\/id\/31662\/jose-altuve\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jose [Altuve]<\/a> did when I got him; his baseball acumen is super strong.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Tigers open the season on the road against the <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"4dec648c-3eb9-055c-aebc-2711f30975a0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com.au\/mlb\/team\/_\/name\/sd\/san-diego-padres\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">San Diego Padres<\/a> on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Detroit Tigers phenom Kevin McGonigle, ESPN&#8217;s No. 2 prospect for the 2026 season, will be on the Opening&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-561579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}