Tigers’ lone bright spot Kevin McGonigle gets highest praise yet from rival executives

It’s been a trying year so far for the Detroit Tigers. They are well under .500 and the hopes they had at the start of the season look fanciful now. Yet, the lone bright spot has been Kevin McGonigle and he has gotten some truly special praise from a rival executive.

In a recent article in The Athletic from Jayson Stark, the veteran baseball writer quotes an anonymous NL executive as saying, “Honestly, as I was watching McGonigle, I turned to the guys around me and I said, ‘I feel this guy is a top 10 hitter in the American League right now, and it’s not even close.’”

That’s quite the compliment. The Tigers have played quite a few National League teams this season so it’s tough to guess who might have made that compliment, but it’s pretty safe to assume that view is not limited to that one exec.

The numbers back it up. Entering Tuesday's game, McGonigle is hitting .291/.396/.419 with two home runs and 16 RBI. He has seven stolen bases and has struck out 25 times while walking 28 times.

That combination of pure contact skills and patience at the plate is really special and the fact that he is just 21 years old and is already getting such high praise should get Tigers fans extremely excited about McGonigle’s potential.

Despite McGonigle’s great season, the Tigers are still struggling

While Tigers fans have to be thrilled about the emergence of McGonigle, it has been somewhat dampened by the team’s bad start. Injuries have certainly played a role in the team’s struggles. Key players like Parker Meadows and Javy Baez have gone on the IL, and the starting rotation has been decimated by injury.

The positive view is that once the team gets healthier they will be able to get back on track but the negative view is that they are already digging themselves a bit of a hole early in the season.

The good news is the team is still right in the American League Central. There’s a long way to go and they have one of the most promising young hitters in the game.

It would not shock anyone if they got hot in the summer and surged into the lead of the division or at least made things competitive coming down the stretch.

A lot of MLB teams have no bright spots or at least very dim ones so the Tigers have to feel good about McGonigle’s start and that NL executive's comments only prove that all of MLB is taking notice.

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