{"id":587487,"date":"2026-02-23T00:38:48","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T00:38:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/587487\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T00:38:48","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T00:38:48","slug":"tigers-roster-prediction-for-2026-opening-day-kevin-mcgonigle-status","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/587487\/","title":{"rendered":"Tigers roster prediction for 2026 Opening Day, Kevin McGonigle status"},"content":{"rendered":"

Who makes Detroit Tigers<\/a>‘ Opening Day roster?<\/p>\n

The biggest question is whether Kevin McGonigle<\/a>, one of MLB’s top prospects and the Tigers’ No. 1 prospect, will make the roster when it takes the field March 26 against the San Diego Padres<\/a> to open the regular season.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

McGonigle went 1-for-2<\/a> in the Tigers’ spring training opener Saturday against the New York Yankees<\/a>, batting second and playing shortstop for four innings. He singled in the first inning on a 100.5 mph fastball<\/a>, and scored the game’s first run with heads-up baserunning.<\/p>\n

Here is the Free Press’ prediction from reporter Evan Petzold<\/a> for the Tigers’ 26-man 2026 Opening Day roster, version 1.5, as of Feb. 16.<\/p>\n

Lineup:\u00a0Colt Keith (3B), Gleyber Torres (2B), Riley Greene (LF), Kerry Carpenter (DH), Spencer Torkelson (1B), Wenceel P\u00e9rez (RF), Dillon Dingler (C), Zach McKinstry (SS), Parker Meadows (CF).<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Bench:\u00a0Jake Rogers (C), Javier B\u00e1ez (INF\/OF), Matt Vierling (OF\/INF), Jahmai Jones (OF).<\/p>\n

Rotation:\u00a0Tarik Skubal (LHP), Framber Valdez (LHP), Jack Flaherty (RHP), Casey Mize (RHP), Justin Verlander (RHP).<\/p>\n

Bullpen:\u00a0Kenley Jansen (RHP), Kyle Finnegan (RHP), Will Vest (RHP), Tyler Holton (LHP), Brant Hurter (LHP), Brenan Hanifee (RHP), Drew Anderson (RHP), Drew Sommers (LHP).<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers roster prediction for 2026 Opening Day<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Who makes Detroit Tigers‘ Opening Day roster? The biggest question is whether Kevin McGonigle, one of MLB’s top…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587488,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2386],"tags":[5,14426,1496,399,1964,147,53,2583,1390,63086,42216,79,95,84,12017,1386,1329,388,132,391,4140,102,1387,4,62,1406,1402,624,18,314,382,594,625,1117,398],"class_list":["post-587487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-detroit-tigers","tag-baseball","tag-brant-hurter","tag-brenan-hanifee","tag-casey-mize","tag-colt-keith","tag-detroit","tag-detroit-tigers","tag-detroittigers","tag-dillon-dingler","tag-drew-anderson","tag-drew-sommers","tag-framber-valdez","tag-gleyber-torres","tag-jack-flaherty","tag-jahmai-jones","tag-jake-rogers","tag-javier-baez","tag-justin-verlander","tag-kenley-jansen","tag-kerry-carpenter","tag-kevin-mcgonigle","tag-kyle-finnegan","tag-matt-vierling","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-opening-day","tag-parker-meadows","tag-riley-greene","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-spencer-torkelson","tag-tarik-skubal","tag-tigers","tag-tyler-holton","tag-will-vest","tag-zach-mckinstry"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}