DETROIT -- Tigers infielder Kevin McGonigle is one of three finalists for the American League Rookie of the Year Award, as expected. The field was announced on Monday.
Guardians right-hander Parker Messick and Red Sox left-hander Payton Tolle are the other finalists. The winner will be announced next Monday, Nov. 9 (7 p.m. ET, MLB Network).
McGonigle has been widely favored to win, having already won Baseball America’s MLB Rookie of the Year award and been voted by players for The Sporting News AL Rookie of the Year and Players Choice AL Outstanding Rookie honors. He has the strength of a historic season for a 22-year-old with a sweet left-handed swing and a grinder mentality.
McGonigle led all American League players, not just rookies, with 7.1 bWAR. He became the first rookie to post at least 97 runs, 28 doubles, 18 home runs, 72 RBIs and 95 walks since Ted Williams in 1939. He was second among American Leaguers with 6.0 offensive bWAR, trailing only Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez, and sixth with 1.9 defensive bWAR.
McGonigle is the fourth rookie to post at least 95 walks and 95 runs scored since the Rookie of the Year Award was established in 1947, joining Aaron Judge (2017), Hall of Famer Joe Morgan (1965) and Jim Gilliam (1953).
With 168 hits, 95 walks and three hit-by-pitches, McGonigle is the fourth player since 1990 to reach base safely at least 266 times in his rookie season, joining Judge (286 in 2017), Ichiro Suzuki (280 in 2001) and Albert Pujols (272 in 2001). All three won Rookie of the Year honors in their respective leagues.
A win for McGonigle would make him the Tigers’ first Rookie of the Year since Michael Fulmer in 2016. It would also come 20 years after Justin Verlander won the award, and 50 years after Mark Fidrych’s incredible rookie season won him the honor. Lou Whitaker won it two years after Fidrych, in 1978.
It’s not just the prestige and the trophy that go with the award. If McGonigle wins, the Tigers will receive an extra pick in the next MLB Draft at the end of the first round under the Prospect Promotion Incentive, implemented in the 2022 Collective Bargaining Agreement to reward clubs for calling up top prospects at the start of a season. Incidentally, that pick could end up right around the same range where the Tigers selected McGonigle with a Competitive Balance pick (37th overall) in the 2023 Draft.