Tigers skip – With Detroit mired in a 20-32 record and down 10½ games in the AL Central, manager A.J. Hinch said the Tigers won’t hold rookie Kevin McGonigle out for scheduled rest. McGonigle has been their best position player through 50 games, even as his recent slump sta
At Oriole Park at Camden Yards on May 22, there was no room for the kind of peace a rookie is usually handed.
A day earlier, Detroit’s plan had been to carve out scheduled off days for 21-year-old Kevin McGonigle as he worked his way through the 162-game season. But with the Tigers spiraling, the math changed. Not right now.
Detroit is 20-32. and it shows in the standings: the Tigers are tied with the Colorado Rockies for second-worst among the 30 MLB teams. trailing only the Los Angeles Angels. In the American League Central. they are 10½ games behind the first-place Cleveland Guardians after a brutal stretch that has featured seven straight losses and 15 defeats in 17 games.
Manager A.J. Hinch said keeping McGonigle in the everyday lineup is a decision made for the moment they’re in.
“Not with how things have been going – and how he’s been doing. holding up fine. ” Hinch said Friday. May 22. before a 7-4 loss to the Baltimore Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. “A lot of the workload stuff is being proactive and not reactive. We haven’t been able to be proactive with where we’re at.”.
McGonigle has been the rare bright spot for Detroit during a stretch that’s swallowed most of the usual options. He is hitting .285 with three home runs, 31 walks and 29 strikeouts across 50 games, posting an .812 OPS. Defensively, he has plus-six defensive runs saved in 428 innings, splitting his work with 29 starts at shortstop and 20 at third base.
Even so, the Tigers can’t ignore what’s happened more recently. Hinch pointed to how the team hasn’t been able to manage workload proactively “where we’re at,” and that’s part of why the decision lands with urgency.
McGonigle has cooled off recently, hitting .214 with a .609 OPS over his past 19 games, after starting his season with .328 and a .935 OPS in his first 31 games.
“He’s performing fine. He’s moving fine. He looks fine,” Hinch said. “We haven’t had the opportunity to be proactive about it. We’re going to dig out of this together, and he gives us the best chance to do that. We’ll adapt accordingly.”
That adaptation is taking place while Detroit deals with another pressure point: injuries have damaged the roster depth. Hinch described a lineup reality that leaves fewer chances to spread the load.
“We’re playing the same nine to 10 players every day with a couple of bench players. ” Hinch said. “which is different than how we’ve been able to spread the playing time out over the last couple of years. It’s no secret we’re not in a great place on multiple fronts, and we’re trying to work through it.”.
The shift in approach is especially stark when it comes to McGonigle’s rest. The Tigers had planned to build scheduled off days for him to help him manage the long schedule. Now, they can’t afford to remove one of their most productive pieces from the lineup.
There’s another layer to the story: the Tigers entered the 2026 season with World Series aspirations. After 52 games, they hold a 20-32 record, and the season’s direction has forced them toward short-term answers—ones that come with tradeoffs.
Still, Detroit and McGonigle are drawing from something they believe can happen again. The article’s own reminders of turnaround history are hard to miss: the 2024 Tigers went on a 31-11 run to secure an AL wild-card birth after a 55-63 start. Other notable 50-game turnarounds include the 2005 Houston Astros recovering from an 18-32 start to finish 89-73. the 2009 Rockies rebounding from a 20-30 start to finish 92-70. and the 2019 Washington Nationals overcoming a 19-31 start to finish 93-69. All three of those teams reached the postseason. and the Nationals went even further by winning the 2019 World Series in seven games over the Astros.
On the field against Baltimore, that belief sat right alongside the stress of the latest loss. Detroit fell 7-4 after seven straight defeats, with McGonigle recording a solo home run in the first inning but also committing a fielding error that led to three runs in the third inning.
After Friday’s loss, McGonigle insisted the problem isn’t effort or trust—it’s timing and staying steady.
“I know what we have in this locker room. ” McGonigle said after Friday’s loss. in which he hit a solo home run in the first inning but made a fielding error that led to three runs in the third inning. “We know what we’ve done in the last two years. It’s tough right now, but it’s a long season. Everyone has their heads on the right way. and they’re ready to go out each and every day and play for each other. It’s a little tough right now, but I know we’ll come out of it.”.
Whether this version of Detroit can mirror the turnaround stories around MLB is now measured in days, not speeches. For now, the Tigers are betting that keeping McGonigle in motion—even without the off days they had planned—gives them their best chance to climb out of the hole they’ve dug.
And if the season is going to bend back toward hope, it will start with the choices being made on nights like May 22, when the scoreboard offers no patience for rest.
Detroit Tigers Kevin McGonigle A.J. Hinch Oriole Park at Camden Yards Baltimore Orioles MLB schedule workload injuries AL Central Cleveland Guardians World Series aspirations