Max Clark, Kevin McGonigle and the 2026 Detroit Tigers

The Tigers best chance at present success may include leaning on their future.

Current Detroit Tigers President of Baseball Operations Scott Harris was hired on September 19, 2022.

A few weeks later, the Tigers would finish the 2022 season at 66-96, marking their sixth consecutive losing campaign, and taking a notable step back from their 77-85 record in 2021.

Despite the optics of the poor 2022 season, due to years of picking towards the top of the draft (and finding some late round gems like Tarik Skubal and Kerry Carpenter), the Tigers had a lot of young talent in the organization when Harris took over. Harris’s job was (and still is) to continue to develop that talent, and add more to it.

With a lot of potential pieces already in place, but not a lot of questions answered, Harris chose to take a bit of a wait-and-see approach during his first offseason at the helm, which was understandable for any first year decision-maker. It’s hard to know what you need until you know what you have already.

Following the 2022-2023 offseason, Harris’s first major shot at putting his mark on the organization was the 2023 MLB Draft. Luckily for Harris and Detroit, it was a highly-regarded draft class, and also luckily for Harris and Detroit, the Tigers had both the 3^rd and 37^th overall picks in the draft.

With his first selection as the Tigers head honcho, Harris went a bit against the grain and chose a high schooler out of Indiana named Max Clark. Clark was eventually signed to a slightly under-slot deal, and some of those savings went to the 37^th overall pick, fellow high schooler Kevin McGonigle, who Detroit drafted and signed to an over-slot deal.

Two and a half years later, the Tigers are in a different spot than they were when Harris took over. The team is coming off back-to-back playoff appearances, and while they were ahead of schedule in reaching the postseason in 2024, expectations have now been raised; enough so that simply winning the division and reaching the playoffs is no longer the goal.

Because of those raised expectations, and because of the aforementioned Tarik Skubal being down to one year of team control left, many fans feel the Tigers should be aggressive this winter in adding talent to the organization. And while Detroit has spent some money so far this offseason, outside of Kenley Jansen and Drew Anderson, most of those funds have been spent on retaining players from the 2025 roster; a roster that plateaued in the playoffs in the same position the 2024 team did.

The Tigers are in a bit of a weird position. They have a lot of depth positionally, with most of their group comprised of young players who’ve already had success and could reasonably improve even more. While there’s not a ton of potential star power, that depth and upside makes upgrading the lineup a little trickier than for teams with more unbalanced rosters. Some will understandably scoff at that notion, but don’t just take it from me. Here’s what FanGraphs writer (and ZiPS creator) Dan Szymborski wrote back on November 20^th in his 2026 Detroit Tigers ZiPS projections article:

“Detroit’s lineup is fairly solid despite lacking any true stars. In a lot of ways, the Tigers are a team largely made up of role players, but they actually fit together quite well. They have competent defensive players up the middle, nobody is really forced to play too often at a position they shouldn’t, and the platoon options largely make sense. And there’s arguably a viable injury replacement at every position… Honestly, the Tigers are a hard lineup to upgrade because they’re not actually abysmal anywhere. I don’t expect any huge changes here over the next three months.”

Make no mistake: adding another impact player or two to the lineup or pitching staff would absolutely do wonders for Detroit, and they should be turning over every leaf to do so. One tough part of the equation is that when you have a roster full of potential 2-3 WAR players, how much are you willing to spend in free agency or trade to upgrade with a potential 3-5 WAR player? That’s for ownership and the front office to decide, but for a team currently on the periphery of true World Series contention, it’s a conversation they should be having daily.

Whether or not a major move comes to fruition, the Tigers appear to be banking on much of their desired improvement for 2026 to come internally. And in some ways, that’s understandable. On the pitching side, it’s not hard to see Troy Melton and Reese Olson taking steps forward in 2026, Casey Mize and Jack Flaherty providing solid mid-rotation production, and Tarik Skubal leading the way for the rotation to be a top 10 unit in MLB; with Kenley Jansen, Will Vest, Kyle Finnegan, Tyler Holton and Brant Hurter providing the backbone of a serviceable bullpen.

Positionally, it’s likewise not difficult to see the outlines of a solid group. Riley Greene, Kerry Carpenter, Spencer Torkelson, Gleyber Torres and Colt Keith give the Tigers a quintet of potentially above average offensive producers who could have more in the tank, while Dillon Dingler and Parker Meadows have both recently flashed tantalizing two-way upside up the middle as well, especially in Dingler’s case.

Outside of those seven, Detroit has some depth in Zach McKinstry, Javy Báez, Wenceel Pérez and Matt Vierling, who are versatile and talented enough to provide cover all around the diamond.

In theory, with so many young players who’ve had success and could improve even further, and with so much versatility on the roster, the Tigers should be feeling pretty good about where they’re at heading into the 2026 season. But critics will rightfully say that not all young players improve, and in fact some get worse; and real games are being won and lost while you’re figuring that out.

It would be great if the Tigers could look into the crystal ball before the season and see which players will exceed expectations and which won’t. But they can’t, so the best they can do is be prepared for all outcomes and be willing to adapt quickly.

One way the Tigers could hedge their bets on 2026 success is by bringing in proven talent to supplement the roster, either via trade or free agency. And as we’ve established, there’d be no quibbles here if Scott Harris and company went that route. One could argue it’s not just desirable, but mandatory if Detroit wants to take the next step.

Acknowledging that the offseason isn’t nearly over yet, Harris has taken some flak for proclaiming that although the players currently look the same as last year, the team won’t be the same. Some fans are understandably leery of that statement, but part of what Harris means is that players are constantly changing. The hope is that the current crop of Tigers, many of whom are on the younger side, are taking the winter to improve, and that they won’t look the same this year as they did last year.

Not all will take a leap however, and that brings us to another way the Tigers could hedge their bets on 2026 success: by counting on Max Clark and Kevin McGonigle.

Young players are notoriously hard to project, as many tend to struggle in their first taste of the big leagues. It’s also perilous to rely on young players to put you over the top. But Clark and McGonigle appear to be a different breed, not only due to their pure hitting ability, but also due to their plate discipline.

In 2025, between High and Double A, Clark hit .271/.403/.432, good for a 148 wRC+ that included 14 home runs and a 17.6% walk rate that exceeded his 16.9% strikeout rate. McGonigle on the other hand hit .305/.408/.583 split mostly between High and Double A, good for a 182 wRC+ with 19 home runs and a 14.9% walk rate compared to a 11.6% strikeout rate.

We mentioned that young players are tough to project, but that’s what Dan Szymborski partially does for a living via his ZiPS projections. And what does he see for Clark and McGonigle in 2026?

Clark: .243/.334/.380, 98 OPS+, 2.3 fWAR

McGonigle: .254/.329/.442, 112 OPS+, 2.3 fWAR

While those WAR projections are just that, projections, the 2.3 fWAR forecasts for both Clark and McGonigle rank as the 4^th and 5^th highest among any Tigers hitter for the 2026 season; and McGonigle’s comes with just 399 plate appearances as the baseline (Clark’s projection comes in 560 PAs).

One of the biggest downfalls of the Tigers offense down the stretch and into the postseason was an elevated strikeout rate. From August 1^st through the end of the regular season, Detroit had a 24.8% strikeout rate that ranked 8^th worst in MLB. That number rose to 26.8% in the postseason, which ranked 5^th worst among the 12 playoff teams.

Outside of Gleyber Torres, per ZiPS no Tigers hitters on the 40 man roster project to have a strikeout rate less than 21% in 2026. Clark’s projected 2026 strikeout rate according to ZiPS is 20.4%, while McGonigle’s is 12.8%.

So we know that the projections, at least the ZiPS version, think Clark and McGonigle can not only help the 2026 Tigers, but think that they may be two of their top five position players already. But they are just projections, and relying on rookies to make a postseason push is risky.

But how risky is it? In the last five years alone, there are numerous examples of rookies featuring prominently in their teams’ runs to the World Series: Ian Anderson, Luis García, Jeremy Peña, Bryson Stott, Corbin Carroll, Josh Jung, Evan Carter and Trey Yesavage to name eight.

While Clark and McGonigle have risen through the ranks together, they are on slightly different timelines, with the consensus being that McGonigle could hit in the big leagues right now, while Clark is a little further behind. How much further is up for debate though, and Clark has done nothing but improve every year.

The Tigers appear likely to give McGonigle at least a shot to crack the big league roster out of spring training, provided they think he can hold his own defensively, including at shortstop. Yes, he only has just over 200 plate appearances at Double A, and yes, his average there was “only” .254. But that came with an unusually low .230 BABIP, and his wRC+ was 162. By nearly every measure, he showed he was ready for the next step offensively. If McGonigle can play a respectable shortstop, the ceiling of the 2026 Tigers is significantly higher. The guess here is that he can.

For now, the odds are likely greater than 50/50 that the Tigers start McGonigle in Toledo to begin the 2026 season. If Detroit wants to be aggressive with his buddy though, Clark could start the year as McGonigle’s teammate in Toledo. While Max also only got just over 200 AA PAs in ’25, he put up a 135 wRC+, and hit .278/.400/.472 in 45 September plate appearances.

Clark in particular could likely benefit from some AAA time, but in both Clark and McGonigle’s cases, odds are they’ll be showing they’re ready for Detroit sooner rather than later early on in the 2026 season.

Scott Harris, Ryan Garko and company have historically been deliberate in promoting prospects since Harris arrived in September 2022. But if they aren’t already, Max Clark and Kevin McGonigle will likely soon be two of the best nine position players Detroit has in the organization.

Last year, following the second half of the season as well as the postseason, it felt like the Tigers offense could use two more big bats. They may be just one call away.

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