Kevin McGonigle was a known commodity in baseball circles before this spring, the Bonner & Prendergast graduate ranked by some outlets as the top prospect in all of baseball, by all as one of the best talents in the minors.
But even with the lofty expectations on his shoulders, McGonigle has excelled this spring.
Monday’s installment might have carried the most symbolism: His second spring training home run for the Detroit Tigers, a three-run bomb hit against the Phillies, before friends and family in Lakeland, Fla.
It’s part of a convincing case McGonigle is making to make the big league club out of spring despite never having played in Triple A.
“I don’t think he’s really fazed by the unknown,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch told the Athletic on Monday. “I don’t think he’s fazed by 50 people in the stands seeing him play against his childhood favorite team. Another day at work for Kevin McGonigle.”
McGonigle has been great for most of the spring. He’s 8-for-30 with a pair of home runs, two doubles and a triple. He’s got eight runs scored and six RBIs, and he’s walked 10 times against six strikeouts. His homers include one off Dominican Republic starter Luis Severino in an exhibition before the World Baseball Classic.
McGonigle’s OPS is 1.063. He’s hitting the ball hard, and after rampaging through minor league fastballs last year, he’s adjusting well to a steadier diet of breaking pitches, including the one from King that he sent 437 feet into the Florida sky on Monday.
He’s done it while consistently playing shortstop, where his defense was a question mark. The ability to stick at the more intensive defensive position bodes well if a future shift to second base is needed.
“I don’t like thinking about it too much,” McGonigle said. “I think just playing where my feet are is the best way I’ve always done it. So I’m going to keep doing everything I can to maybe, hopefully, earn a job. And if I don’t get it, you know what, just go back out to Triple A and earn it.”
McGonigle doesn’t turn 22 until August. He was the 37th overall pick in the 2023 draft for the Tigers, among a bumper crop of position players in the Tigers’ system. A wrist injury limited him to 21 games in his first pro season, then he managed just 74 in 2024. But he hit his way through High A by the middle of the spring, with a .372 average and 1.110 OPS in 36 games.
In 46 games at Double A Erie last year, he hit 12 homers and 41 RBIs with a .254 average and a .919 OPS.
McGonigle isn’t the only former Bonner bat impressing this spring. Nate Furman started strong though has cooled off with the San Francisco Giants.
Nate Furman of the San Francisco Giants organization. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Furman is 4-for-17 (.167) in 24 plate appearances with the Giants, with five walks and seven strikeouts. He has a homer, five RBIs and six runs scored. He did most of his damage early in the spring — the homer was March 2 — but remained with the big club through Tuesday.
Furman, 24, was a fourth-round pick of Cleveland in 2021 out of Charlotte. He was traded to the Giants in August 2024 in the Alex Cobb deal and spent time at four levels in 2025, with 21 games in High A and nine in Double A. He hit .369 in 122 at-bats at all levels last year.
Chris Newell, a Malvern Prep grad and Broomall native, has gone 2-for-12 with a homer and three RBIs in nine games for the Dodgers.
His home run came on Feb. 27. The 24-year-old outfielder who was a 13th-round pick out of Virginia in 2022 is coming off his third straight 20-homer season in the minors, the last while hitting .241 with 20 homers and 80 RBIs in 127 games in Double A.
His fellow Malvern Prep product by way of Villanova, Jimmy Kingsbury, has looked good for Seattle.
He’s allowed six hits and two earned runs in 4.2 innings pitch, walking two and striking out four. A 17th-rounder in the 2021 draft, Kingsbury just turned 27. He went 5-3 with a 2.93 ERA in 44 appearances at Double A last year, opponents hitting just .198 off of him.
Villanova grad Gordon Graceffo threw two scoreless innings with the Cardinals in a pair of appearances before joining Italy for the World Baseball Classic.
Graceffo allowed a run on a hit and two walks in the sixth inning of relief of Aaron Nola, the only run allowed by Italy a 9-1 win over Mexico in the group stage. He got a hold for a scoreless inning with three Ks against Brazil, an 8-0 win, and he added a scoreless frame in a warmup game against the Angels before the tournament.
Graceffo debuted in the big league on June 29, 2024, and threw in 26 big league games last year.
Neither Ethan Pecko, the Ridley grad and right-handed pitcher who is listed by MLB.com as Houston’s seventh-ranked prospect and made eight starts in Triple A last year, nor Chris Clark, a Haverford School product acquired by the Rays from the Angels in January’s Josh Lowe deal after reaching Double A last year, have pitched yet in spring.
Garnet Valley grad Andrew Bechtold was invited to Phillies camp but didn’t appear in a game before being reassigned to minor league camp on March 12.
Andrew Bechtold is with the Philadelphia Phillies organization. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)