Hey Siri, play "Return of the Mack" by Mark Morrison. After a spring training filled with batsmashing in powermaxxing (I have no idea what those terms mean, but I would assume people and Kevin McGonigle's generation do), Kevin McGonigle is officially the Tigers' opening-day shortstop. He hasn’t necessarily been inserted into the lineup at short yet, but using logic and reasoning, I think one can assume he’ll play short when the Tigers face the Padres on Thursday.
I have to give the Tigers organization credit here for allowing McGonigle the opportunity to play his way onto the Opening Day roster. I genuinely don’t think that their plan coming into spring training was for him to make the team out of camp. There’s definitely a time in the past when the organization would’ve gone the service time manipulation route, but it’s pretty safe to say that McGonigle made himself inevitable. I’m not going to call him the final piece of the puzzle, but if he ends up turning into the hitter that we believe he can be, he can definitely turn out to be the biggest piece of the puzzle.
One thing I left out of the video is that while McGonigle is expected to become a valuable player, given the roster outlook, the expectation is not for him to come in right away and save the entire organization. This is a team that’s coming off back-to-back playoff appearances. I know we have our issues with this offense, but it’s a capable lineup. McGonigle should, assuming everybody plays their role, have some legitimate lineup protection. This is not like four years ago, when I felt like Spencer Torkelson was thrown to the wolves in a lineup that was very easy to pitch to. This might not be an all-time great offense, but they do have some mashers. The bottom line is that over time, "The Mac" is going to get pitches to hit.