Tigers insider dashes fans' pipe dreams of aggressive September roster expansion

With September roster expansions incoming, Tigers fans can't help but let imaginations run wild about who might come up to fill the two open spots. Realistically, the Tigers will probably go to more bullpen arms — Dylan Smith and Brenan Hanifee immediately come to mind — or to an extra bench bat (Jace Jung? Justyn-Henry Malloy?), but fans would love to see a top prospect get a late-season debut in the vein of Jackson Jobe's last year.

Kevin McGonigle, Max Clark, and Josue Briceño — the Tigers' Nos. 1, 2, and 4 prospects — are in Double-A as of early July, and McGonigle is especially making it look too easy. Could any of them be expedited through Triple-A, come up in September, and potentially be part of Detroit's postseason run?

Cody Stavenhagen of the Athletic tempered fans' expectations. He wrote that the chance of Clark coming to the majors this year is "about zero percent."

"McGonigle perhaps has a better chance than Clark to debut, but still a very low percentage," Stavenhagen writes. "Even Max Anderson is probably in line before McGonigle."

Tigers insider casts doubt on the possibility of top prospects Kevin McGonigle, Max Clark's debuts in 2025

It makes sense; if the Tigers really wanted to bring any of McGonigle, Clark, or Briceño up to the majors before the season's over, they would've had to send them to Triple-A on Wednesday. As good as all three have been so far, the Tigers don't really need to rush them if they have Anderson, Hao-Yu Lee, Jung, and Malloy in Triple-A.

McGonigle became baseball's No. 2 prospect behind the Pirates' Konnor Griffin in MLB Pipeline's midseason re-rankings. He's batting .299 with .992 OPS since he was promoted, and he followed up a two-homer game on Aug. 12 with another absolute moonshot the very next day.

It doesn't seem entirely impossible that McGonigle gets promoted to Triple-A before their season wraps up on Sept. 21, which would lead to him competing in earnest for a spot on next year's Opening Day roster. However, Stavenhagen also wrote that the Tigers still seem to have faith in Trey Sweeney, so they may not be inclined to rush McGonigle to Triple-A either.

Regardless, McGonigle absolutely seems like he'll be a consideration at some point early next season, if not during spring training. He might not surface as soon as Tigers fans might like, but he's definitely on his way.

It'll be another conservative approach by Scott Harris and the front office. Probably for the best, but still frustrating in some way.