Tigers rookie Kevin McGonigle will be a hometown kid at All-Star Game in Philadelphia

DETROIT (AP) — Detroit Tigers rookie Kevin McGonigle can’t wait to go home for the All-Star Game in Philadelphia.

“I’m super pumped,” McGonigle said Sunday before facing his hometown Phillies.

Even though McGonigle is just 21, he has had a lot of travel bags for baseball.

None, though, was like the white one sitting on the carpeted floor next to his chair in the Tigers’ clubhouse. The duffel bag was adorned with the All-Star Game logo and there was an Old English D on each end.

“I’d say this is the best one I’ve ever had,” McGonigle said.

He earned it.

Since the first All-Star Game in 1933, Los Angeles Angels star Mike Trout and Hall of Famer Al Kaline are the two players who have reached base safely more often than McGonigle at the break.

The Tigers thought McGonigle would be good, but no one could have projected this much production so early in his career.

Detroit drafted McGonigle with the No. 37 pick in 2023 and he spent two-plus years in the minor leagues, skipping a stop at Triple-A Toledo, as a promising prospect.

Shortly after McGonigle made the major league roster during spring training and had four hits in his debut, the franchise saw enough to give him a $150 million, eight-year contract.

So far, it certainly looks like a wise investment.

“It’s so impressive how mature he is in the box,” Tigers All-Star outfielder Riley Greene said. “You don’t see many people at 21 having at-bats as good as him.”

Since 1947, he is the fifth rookie 21 or younger to have at least 99 hits before the All-Star Game.

“He’s a good-looking, young player,” said Phillies manager Don Mattingly, who was quite a player himself. “Young guys seem to be coming up a lot more often, and doing well right away.

“Seeing him in the spring, he swung the bat. In spring you kind of go, ‘OK, we’ll see,’ with young guys and then obviously, he has taken it into the season and he’s still rolling.”

McGonigle, who was born in Media, Pennsylvania, and attended high school in nearby Drexel Hill, shared his picks for the best cheesesteaks in the Philadelphia area ahead of the Home Run Derby on Monday night and the All-Star Game on Tuesday night.

“Delco’s Steaks in Delaware County, which is where I’m from, is my favorite,” he said. “In the city, Philip’s is a sleeper. There’s a different way they cut the meat, and it’s really good.”

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