Six Tigers Minor Leaguers Take Home Major Honors After High-A's Incredible Season
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After winning the Midwest League title for the first time since 2015, the awards haven't stopped coming in for the Detroit Tigers' High-A affiliate; the West Michigan Whitecaps.
Six players earned awards in total, as John Peck, Izaac Pacheco, Max Clark, Andrew Sears and Colin Fields were all named to the All-Star team and Kevin McGonigle, the Tigers' top prospect who set the minor leagues ablaze this summer, was named the league's best prospect.
Their skipper, Tony Cappuccilli, was named the Midwest League High-A Manager of the Year to round out the Whitecaps' incredible honors where they nearly swept the league's awards.
Dominant Champions
Those six players who were recognized helped etch the Whitecaps into High-A history this year.
They recorded the highest winning percentage in a regular season by a minor league club in the last 30 years. They also showed it in the postseason, sweeping Cedar Rapids in a best-of-seven series for the club's first title in over a decade.
Pacheco led the Whitecaps and the league in home runs this season with 17. He also showed elite plate discipline with 74 walks, which paced the team. Peck led the team in runs and hits, marks that were third and fifth in the league, respectively.
Clark, the Tigers' second-ranked prospect, spent the first half of the season with the Whitecaps where he had the highest average of his career (.285). In his 260 at-bats with the team before his promotion to Double-A, he also set career marks in OBP (.430) and OPS (.857) to earn his spot in Erie.
Congratulations to our five High-A All-Stars, Izaac Pacheco on being named Midwest League MVP, Kevin McGonigle on being named Midwest League High-A Top MLB Prospect and Tony Cappuccilli who was named Midwest League High-A Manager of the Year! pic.twitter.com/zISSJCP4ZE
— Tigers PR (@DetroitTigersPR) September 17, 2025
Despite only playing 36 games with the Whitecaps, McGonigle was given the league's highest award. He posted a .372 batting average, the top mark in any league and any season of his short career so far. He kept up his impressive streak of finishing with more walks than strikeouts, showing elite plate discipline at every stop of his career.
On the mound, Colin Fields was tied on the team for the most wins at eight with an impressive 1.64 ERA in 66 innings pitched. He had a WHIP below one at 0.82 while showing elite command with 80 strikeouts to 15 walks, giving him an elite strikeout-to-walk ratio of 5.333.
Sears posted the lowest ERA of his career, 2.95, in 82.1 innings pitched this season. He earned seven wins with the Whitecaps and had 94 strikeouts to only 29 walks.
The Whitecaps' season was capped off by winning the league, but the Tigers' future has never looked brighter, with the production they are seeing from some of the youngest stars in their farm system.
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JD Andress is an accomplished sports writer and journalist with extensive experience covering a wide range of collegiate sports. JD has provided in-depth coverage of the TCU Horned Frogs and the Texas Longhorns. He looks forward to being part of the coverage of the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. His experience spans various sports, including football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, rifle, equestrian, and others, reflecting his broad interest and commitment to sports journalism.