SAN DIEGO – Rarely does a Major League manager get to tell a player he’s getting called up to the big leagues for his MLB debut. Usually, that falls upon a Minor League manager or player development director, because the player is being called up from an affiliate in the middle of a season. The only time a big-league manager gets to deliver the message is that rare time a prospect makes his first Major League roster out of Spring Training.
So when Tigers manager A.J. Hinch had the chance to tell Kevin McGonigle on Tuesday morning that his Major League dreams were coming true, he channeled his old player development roots and had some fun with it.
“I woke up at 8 a.m. that morning and saw a text: 8:55 meeting,” McGonigle said Wednesday before the Tigers worked out at Petco Park. “I was like, 'Alright, here we go. This is the day.'”
McGonigle (MLB Pipeline's No. 2 overall prospect) had put himself on the verge of the big leagues by handling everything thrown his way with a cool personality. This was Hinch’s opportunity to finally make him sweat a little.
“I don’t know what he said,” Hinch said, “but I know he was nervous coming into that meeting.”
Said McGonigle: “We had breakfast before and I couldn't really eat, I was so stressed out.”
Once McGonigle went into the meeting, it was no easier.
“The poor kid had to wait through his long preamble from our manager,” president of baseball operations Scott Harris said, “before he would just tell the poor kid that he’s on the team. And so I was sitting there feeling really bad for Kevin.”
Said Hinch: “It wasn’t a preamble. That was an unnecessary criticism from the president.”
Said McGonigle: “It was a buildup. He did a great job of keeping in between, 'Oh, you're not making it,' or 'You're making it.' So the whole time, I was on my toes. I was just kinda like, 'A.J., come on, get to the point. I'm stressing over here.'”
It was about 10 minutes of buildup, McGonigle estimated, until he finally got the news he’d been hoping to hear.
“What I think is important when you tell a young player that he’s making his first Major League team is how he earned it,” Hinch said. “We were open-minded from the very beginning of the spring and we threw a lot at him. And so, what I wanted him to feel is the fact that he earned it and he did impress us with how he went about his business – not the numbers, not the homer off [Luis] Severino [in the Dominican Republic], not the more walks than strikeouts. Those are all impressive, but how he went about his spring really leads me to trust that his preparation is going to be at this level.”
There was a method to Hinch’s madness. He laid out to McGonigle how he had earned a big league spot. He just did it before telling McGonigle he had the spot.
“Of course, he told me the great news,” McGonigle said. “I still can't really put it into words. I'm still just taking it all in and I feel like it won't hit me until the national anthem tomorrow.”
The preparation that Hinch credited was impressive. Before McGonigle played in the Tigers’ Grapefruit League opener, he watched video on the Yankees starter for that game, Yankees No. 2 prospect Carlos Lagrange, whom he had seen in the Minor Leagues. He kept notes on his phone about at-bats and how certain pitchers approached him, hoping to spot patterns and figure out adjustments.
Those preparations continue in earnest now that the games count and McGonigle's jersey number has dropped from 85 to 7, the number he wore for most of his games growing up.
“I’m going to see these guys again at some point,” McGonigle said. “Just trying to keep all the little things, how they pitched me or what they did early in the count, just having that in the back of my mind for the next time I face them.”
Once McGonigle got the news, he had the happiest task.
“First call was to my parents,” he said. “My mom, I talked to her and I said, 'What are you doing Thursday?' And right away she was like, 'I'm going to San Diego.' So that was nice.
“I told my dad right after. I told him the news and he was like, 'How many tickets do I get?'”