Two of the biggest national prospect rankings in the sport recently published their midseason re-ranking of the game’s best young talent. Baseball Prospectus and Keith Law of The Athletic both now have Detroit Tigers shortstop prospect Kevin McGonigle as the number one prospect in baseball.
The 20-year-old shortstop—he’ll turn 21 in late August—has been our top ranked Tigers prospect since Jackson Jobe graduated this spring. He posted a 208 wRC+ in the Midwest League playing for the High-A West Michigan
Whitecaps with a tiny 11.1 percent strikeout rate contrasted against a 13.5 percent walk rate. He had seven home runs and 31 extra base hits total in just 36 games after returning from an ankle injury suffered on the first day of the 2025 minor league season.
Since moving up to Double-A before the All-Star break, McGonigle holds a 159 wRC+ and is settling in nicely. He’s struck out just 8.3 percent of the time against a 16.7 percent walk rate, albeit in only six games played so far for the Erie SeaWolves.
At this rate, McGonigle will hit his way to Detroit sometime next summer at the latest. His buddy, center fielder Max Clark, might not be far behind him. While Clark is a full step below McGonigle as an offensive force right now, he’s also several months younger and has started to flash the pull power we’ve been looking for in recent weeks. Combined with good speed on the bases and strong defensive ability in the outfield, Clark’s pure hitting ways have him on a trajectory not too far off from McGonigle.
Clark’s progress this season is reflected in Keith Law ranking him the second best prospect in baseball.
Prospect lists are prospect lists and just snapshot forecasts of potential, but in both cases there’s really no question that both McGonigle and Clark are tracking to be significant, impactful big leaguers with a chance for stardom. Scott Harris’ first draft running the Tigers currently looks like one of the best in recent memory. Probably best to keep that in mind when you see the industry out of step with the Tigers on draft day.
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