There’s a new No. 1 prospect in baseball according to Baseball Prospectus, and he’s in the Detroit Tigers organization.
One of the most respected prospect evaluation outlets has listed Tigers shortstop Kevin McGonigle as baseball’s top prospect, according to its midseason rankings released on Wednesday, July 16.
McGonigle has “the best hit tool projection we’ve seen in a hot minute,” BP prospect evaluators Jarrett Seidler and Jefferey Paternostro wrote while praising his offensive profile.
“McGonigle this year is carrying an 84% overall contact rate and a 10% strikeout rate,” they continued. “He hits the ball hard more consistently than anyone on this list. He hits the ball to good parts of the stadium. He makes great swing decisions.”
McGonigle was promoted to Double-A Erie on July 7 after tearing up High-A West Michigan in 2025. In 36 games for the Whitecaps, McGonigle slashed .372/.462/.648 with seven home runs and 39 RBI in 171 plate appearances, earning a spot in the 2025 MLB All-Star Futures Game.
McGonigle went 0-for-2 with two flyouts at the event, held at Atlanta’s Truist Park on Saturday, July 12.
The Tigers drafted McGonigle with the 37th overall pick in the Competitive Balance Round A (part of the first round) in the 2023 MLB Draft, though he was not the Tigers’ first pick in the draft.
That was center fielder Max Clark, the No. 3 overall pick who came in at No. 13 on the midseason list, with BP writing: “It’s not hard to squint and see Clark being driven in 100 times a year by McGonigle, Greene, and Torkelson in a couple years.”
Clark played a starring role at the Futures Game, going 1-for-1 as the leadoff hitter with a walk and a stolen base. He was promoted to Erie along with McGonigle and catcher Josue Briceño, who BP listed at No. 21.
Briceño is also having a breakout season in the minors, slashing .296/.422/.602 with 15 home runs and 57 RBIs in 244 plate appearances at West Michigan before his promotion to Erie. Of Briceño, BP wrote:
“After spending a large chunk of 2024 on the IL, Briceño came back and slugged over .600 in the Midwest League, earning a promotion to Erie before his 21st birthday. He’s not the twitchiest slugger around, but he gets the bat to the ball and the ball goes far when he does.”
Briceño went 1-for-3 with a triple in the Futures Game.
The last Tigers prospect BP lists in its midseason top 50 is Bryce Rainer, the team’s first-round draft pick in 2024. Rainer slashed .288/.383/.448 as a 19-year-old in his first professional season at Low-A Lakeland in 2025 before shoulder surgery knocked him out for the rest of the season. Here’s what BP wrote about him:
“A late riser among the 2024 draft class, Rainer continued to show a new level of power in 2025, posting a 90th-percentile exit velocity of 108 [mph] in Low-A. That was the last missing piece for him as a prep prospect, as he is likely to stick at short and has a big arm—he was a legitimate two-way prospect as a high schooler—and has plenty of bat speed and whip through the zone.”
The Tigers entered the season with the No. 1 farm system according to MLB Pipeline, and based on BP’s midseason rankings, it’s reasonable to think the organization’s best prospects have gotten even better. McGonigle, for example, entered the season as BP’s No. 6 prospect, while Clark started the season at No. 31.
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You can reach Christian at cromo@freepress.com
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers prospect Kevin McGonigle ranked No. 1 prospect by Baseball Prospectus
Reporting by Christian Romo, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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