One Stat Puts Historic Month for Tigers Rookie Kevin McGonigle in Perspective
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The Detroit Tigers went into the regular season hoping to take the next step as a franchise following a splashy winter coming off back-to-back runs within a game of their first ALCS appearance in over a decade.
While free agency signings are nice, the lifeblood of any MLB franchise is the farm system, and it was always going to take both internal development from players already in the big leagues as well as new faces to help jumpstart things.
No one is a better example of this perhaps across all of baseball than Detroit's rookie and top prospect Kevin McGonigle, who looks like not just a future star, but already arguably the best non-Tarik Skubal player on the Tigers.
While he has received a ton of deserved fanfare, one statistic in particular highlights just how absurd and historic the first month of his career has been for Detroit.
Tigers Seeing McGonigle Post Historic Start in Terms of WAR
Entering the new week, McGonigle has officially already posted a 2.0 bWAR, tying him with Chicago Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner at the top of all position players in Major League Baseball. Given that we are just over 10 percent of the way into the year, this puts McGonigle on pace to push for a double digit bWAR this year.
The last time this was seen was back in 2012, when Mike Trout posted arguably the greatest rookie season in the history of the game by slashing .326/.399/.564 to post a bWAR of 10.5. If McGonigle could come anywhere near that, it would put him beyond just a great career start.
It would be the greatest rookie year in the history of Detroit and would put McGonigle in the mind-blowing category of future Hall of Fame pace.
How McGonigle Can Actually Keep This Up for Tigers
Perhaps the most frightening thing to the rest of baseball on the start McGonigle has had? It looks like it might be pretty sustainable throughout the year.
With a laughably strong slash line of .330/.423/.528 alongside 35 hits in 28 games, McGonigle has had zero learning curve whatsoever despite never even playing a game at the Triple-A level. This is a professional hitter with the approach of a seasoned-veteran who comes to the plate with a defined plan for every at-bat and sticks to it.
All that is combined with a glove on the left side of the infield that is a whole lot better than anyone expected at this point in his career either.
McGonigle would be the first to tell you that he has a ton of work to do, but Detroit should take note of exactly what they are seeing here: this is history right now.
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Michael Brauner is a 2022 graduate of the University of Alabama with a degree in Sports Media. He covers various MLB teams across the On SI network and you can also find his work on Yellowhammer News covering the Alabama Crimson Tide and Auburn Tigers as well as on the radio producing and co-hosting 'The Opening Kickoff' every weekday morning on 105.5 WNSP FM in Mobile, Alabama.