DETROIT -- The 1953 Tigers finished 60-94, but that club still holds a special place in franchise history. It was the debut season for 18-year-old Al Kaline, who went on to a Hall of Fame career and became Mr. Tiger. It was also the American League Rookie of the Year campaign for shortstop Harvey Kuenn, who set an AL record at the time with 679 at-bats, barely a year after signing out of the University of Wisconsin.
Between 209 hits, 50 walks and a hit-by-pitch, Kuenn reached base safely 260 times, most by a Tigers rookie since the Rookie of the Year Award was established in 1947. That standard survived the impressive rookie campaigns of Jake Wood (233 times on base in 1961), Steve Kemp (218 in 1977), Lou Whitaker (200 in his AL Rookie of the Year campaign of 1978) and Austin Jackson (232 as AL Rookie runner-up in 2010). It did not survive Kevin McGonigle.
With three hits in Wednesday afternoon’s 4-2 loss to the Nationals at Comerica Park, McGonigle has reached base safely 262 times, just the fifth Major League rookie to do so since 1990. The previous four -- Aaron Judge (286 in 2017), Ichiro Suzuki (280 in 2001), Albert Pujols (272 in 2001) and Ben Grieve (262 in 1998) -- all won Rookie of the Year honors, three of them unanimously.
“It’s a pretty cool accomplishment,” McGonigle said. “First off, I don’t think it would be possible without the guys in this clubhouse, the way they push me every day, the way we build off each other. They’ve been amazing this year for my rookie season. ...
“To have my name up there with guys like that is pretty special.”
With everything McGonigle has accomplished this season, it could end up being a footnote. Yet, it gets to the heart of what makes him such an offensive catalyst at a time when rookies seem to have it harder than ever adapting to Major League pitching.
“It’s big,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “It makes for a complete offensive player. He’s going to get better, and he’s never going to be satisfied. He’ll find something else to chase, even if it’s himself. And I think that’s part of why he’s really good is that he’s obsessed with the details.
“When he goes up for a game plan, he's obsessed with what the guy's going to do against him. He's always in the at-bat. He never concedes the at-bat. I know he goes through his peaks and valleys like every hitter, but the ability to get on base when things aren't going well stops the long stretches of drought for an offensive player.”
McGonigle has just two streaks of games without reaching base safely -- back-to-back games May 28-29 against the Angels and White Sox, and three straight games Aug. 25-28 against the Rays and Dodgers. He has had hitless streaks in there, but tempered them by mixing in a walk or two.
“I kind of want to get on base as much as I can,” McGonigle said. “When you have guys on the bases, good things happen, usually, and that’s my mindset. Just get on base and get the bat to the guy behind me.”
Like Kuenn in ‘53, McGonigle has kept up his approach through the physical and mental grind of a long season. He’s batting .305 with a .396 on-base percentage in September, and his .908 OPS is his highest for a month since April. He has reached base in every game but one.
Wednesday was McGonigle’s first three-hit game since Aug. 7, and he did it against three pitch types from three pitchers. His third-inning double off right-hander Brad Lord’s sweeper was a line drive into the right-field corner. Two innings later, he turned on a high fastball from lefty Will Dion and chopped it through the right side for a two-out single.
After taking a cutter from Dion for a called third strike in the seventh, McGonigle sent a line drive through the middle in the ninth off a Yovanny Cruz sinker, part of back-to-back one-out singles that brought the potential tying run to the plate.
McGonigle saw 14 pitches, 11 strikes over five at-bats, and he didn’t swing and miss once, coming off of a three-strikeout game on Tuesday.
McGonigle could also become the first Major League hitter with more walks than strikeouts in his age-21 season or younger (minimum 300 plate appearances) since Gary Sheffield in 1990. But with 94 walks and 96 strikeouts, he needs some passes.
“He's going to continue to develop,” Hinch said, “but give me the guy who's in complete control of his at-bats and and the knowledge of the strike zone, like a Kevin McGonigle at any age, and we're gonna have a really productive player on our hands.”