The first half of the 2025 season was a magic carpet ride for Zach McKinstry. It checked off all the boxes for being an incredible human interest story. You had a local guy who went to school at Central Michigan who had been grinding his way just to make it onto a big league roster for several years. He burst onto the scene and had an All-Star campaign. It was wonderful to see. This team does not make the postseason without Zach McKinstry. We came into this season a bit worried about this team‘s depth, considering the number of injuries they had in the outfield. They needed guys to step up, and I don’t know if anybody stepped up more than Z Mac.
As fun as it was to see McKinstry collect big hit after big hit in the first half of the season, the batted ball data, as well as just his history as a player, suggested that there would be a tremendous fall off as the season went along. This is why the numbers don’t lie sometimes, because McKinstry did regress back to the mean in the second half of the season. I can’t even be mad about it. Like I said, it was to be expected, and they needed those reps in the first half. They were without so many key pieces, and he not only contributed at the plate, but he also did a lot of the little things well. AJ likes to move them all around the diamond; he can steal bases. Zach McKinstry, even when he’s not hitting, is a very valuable piece of this baseball team. He even had a moment in the postseason, driving in the game-winning run in game one against the Seattle Mariners, in extra innings.
McKinstry is a valuable piece of this baseball team, but it’s hard to imagine him ever being better than he was in his 2025 campaign. That’s not even meant to be an insult. But this is a guy who had been a fringe major leagueer for the first several years of his career, and all of a sudden, he found himself in the All-Star game. While regression was inevitable, McKinstry is pretty much guaranteed a spot on next year‘s roster, which is meaningful for a guy who, for the last several years, seemed to be the final piece to make the team out of spring training.
I consistently hammer home how I grade these players relative to expectations. For that reason, I want to give Zach McKinstry an A. This might sound mean, but I think it’s safe to say that we expect very little out of a player like him. He was able to provide Detroit with the best offensive run of his career, which helped carry the team in the first half of the season. If there’s any downside, there was just never a moment when I felt like his breakout was legitimate. That’s not to say he was undeserving of a spot in the All-Star game, but I never felt like we were watching a different player; I just felt like we were watching the same player who just got really hot for 1/2 of the season.
I don’t expect McKinstry ever to have a better season than he had in the first half of 2025, but it was a wonderful story that he was able to make the All-Star team seemingly against all odds. AJ Hinch loves him, and for a team that often finds itself lacking in terms of defensive fundamentals on the infield, you can always rely on Zach McKinstry to give you a good glove at whatever position he’s playing. He’ll continue to be a fan favorite.
FINAL GRADE: A-