Kevin McGonigle Breaks Longstanding Tigers Rookie Hit Record

Kevin McGonigle kept finding his way aboard Wednesday at Comerica Park, collecting three hits in Detroit’s 4-2 loss to Washington and moving past a Tigers rookie standard that had stood since Harvey Kuenn’s 1953 season.

McGonigle’s three-hit afternoon pushed him to 262 times reaching base, surpassing Kuenn’s 260 for the most by a Detroit rookie since the Rookie of the Year Award began in 1947. Kuenn won the American League award in 1953 after piling up 209 hits, 50 walks and one hit by pitch over a league-record 679 at-bats.

That 1953 Tigers club went 60-94, but it remains a landmark season in Detroit history. It brought the big-league debut of 18-year-old Al Kaline, the future Hall of Famer known as Mr. Tiger, while Kuenn arrived less than a year after signing out of the University of Wisconsin and immediately became one of the league’s best young hitters.

Several notable Tigers rookies had come close to Kuenn’s on-base total without getting there: Jake Wood reached 233 times in 1961, Steve Kemp 218 in 1977, Lou Whitaker 200 during his 1978 Rookie of the Year season, and Austin Jackson 232 as the 2010 runner-up.

Rare company for Detroit’s young catalyst

McGonigle is only the fifth Major League rookie since 1990 to reach base 262 times in a season. The other four were Aaron Judge with 286 in 2017, Ichiro Suzuki with 280 in 2001, Albert Pujols with 272 in 2001 and Ben Grieve with 262 in 1998. Each went on to win Rookie of the Year, with Judge, Ichiro and Pujols unanimous selections.

“It means a lot,” McGonigle said. “My teammates have been a huge part of it. They challenge me every day, and we feed off one another. Seeing my name alongside players like those is really special.”

Manager A.J. Hinch sees the record as another sign of the kind of hitter McGonigle is becoming. Hinch said McGonigle’s attention to detail, from preparing for each opposing pitcher to remaining competitive within every plate appearance, gives him a chance to avoid the prolonged slumps that can swallow young hitters.

“He is not going to stop improving,” Hinch said. “He will always find another goal, even if he is chasing his own standard. He is locked into the details, and he does not give away at-bats.”

Three different looks, three hits

McGonigle’s first three-hit game since Aug. 7 came against three pitchers and three different offerings. In the third inning, he drove Brad Lord’s sweeper into the right-field corner for a double. Against left-hander Will Dion in the fifth, he pulled a high fastball through the right side for a two-out single.

Dion caught him looking at a cutter for strike three in the seventh, but McGonigle answered in the ninth. He lined Yovanny Cruz’s sinker through the middle, then watched Detroit place consecutive one-out singles on the board to bring the potential tying run to the plate.

He saw 14 pitches in five trips, with 11 called strikes, and did not swing through a pitch. That came one day after a three-strikeout game.

Even when the hits have not arrived, McGonigle has usually found another route to first base. He has had only two stretches this season without reaching safely: consecutive games against the Angels and White Sox on May 28-29, and three straight games against the Rays and Dodgers from Aug. 25-28. His hitless runs have often included a walk or two.

“My job is to get on base as often as possible,” McGonigle said. “With runners aboard, good things can happen. I want to pass the bat along to the next hitter.”

September finish still building

McGonigle has reached base in all but one game this month while batting .305 with a .396 on-base percentage. His .908 September OPS is his best monthly mark since April.

He also has another late-season target in sight. With 94 walks and 96 strikeouts, McGonigle could become the first Major League hitter age 21 or younger, with at least 300 plate appearances, to finish with more walks than strikeouts since Gary Sheffield in 1990. He will need a few more free passes to get there.

Hinch said that level of strike-zone command is valuable at any age. For the Tigers, McGonigle’s record-setting rookie year is increasingly looking like more than a historical footnote. It is the daily work of a hitter who keeps the inning alive and keeps asking the pitcher for one more mistake.