The Tigers’ shortstop situation is starting to look less like a temporary puzzle and more like a roster question they have to answer cleanly in 2027.
Detroit just wrapped up the 2026 season with its infielders posting -19 Fielding Run Value, which left the group fourth-worst in the majors and tied with the Los Angeles Angels. There were a couple of bright spots mixed into that picture - the infield still finished with the fifth-best mark in Inf. DP - but the cracks showed up in range, where Detroit dropped to 29th, again tied with the Angels.
Shortstop has been part of the problem for a while. From 2024 through 2026, Detroit shortstops combined for a -4 FRV, which puts the position among the weakest in baseball. The workload at the spot tells its own story: Javier Baez (169), Trey Sweeney (130), and Zach McKinstry (106) handled the most games there over that span.
McKinstry stands out as the clearest defensive answer in the group. He’s also one of the American League shortstop Gold Glove candidates this season.
Among the three main Tigers who have logged time at short, he’s the only one with a positive defensive profile, putting up 6 Fielding Run Value over 756 innings there between 2024 and 2026. His 2024 season was the strongest of the bunch, with 4 FRV, and in 2026 he was still above average with 2, even though his playing time dipped to just 191 innings.
By contrast, Sweeney and Baez have been the sources of most of the trouble. Together, they’ve combined for -8 FRV, -3 in Range, and -5 in Inf. DP, numbers that underline both the coverage issues and the struggle to finish double plays.
That matters even more when you look at the pitching profile behind them. Over the last two seasons, Detroit has ranked 18th in the majors with an 8.43 K/9 rate, so it hasn’t been carrying the kind of strikeout staff that can clean up defensive mistakes. And with Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize not in the 2027 rotation, the Tigers will need to make up some of that ground another way.
They’ve done it by keeping the ball on the ground. Over that same two-year stretch, Detroit has posted the sixth-best ground-ball rate allowed, and in 2026 it sat at 44.3%, the club’s second-best single-season mark in the last decade, behind only 44.5% in 2021.
All of that points toward one conclusion: it’s hard to see a workable 2027 plan at shortstop without McKinstry in the starting job.
Kevin McGonigle is another piece in the mix. Detroit spent spring training preparing him at both third base and shortstop, and he ended up starting 90 games in 2026.
He handled 676 innings at shortstop in his debut season and finished with 0 FRV and -1 in Range, which is below league average, though he did come out with a positive mark of 1 in double plays. He’s not someone to simply rule out, especially since he was better at third base.
If Detroit wants to shift McGonigle away from short, the third-base options appear to be Hao-Yu Lee and Colt Keith. Lee would make sense if the club leans offense, but his defense was among the worst in the league, with -5 FRV. Keith’s bat dropped from the 53rd to the 32nd percentile in Batting, but he would bring more defensive value.
However Detroit chooses to sort out the alignment, spring training is likely to bring plenty of testing as the club tries to find the right balance between offense and defense. And McKinstry’s case will be hard to ignore. Over the last two seasons, he has averaged 2.8 fWAR and a 117 wRC+ as a shortstop, a profile that could carry real weight as the Tigers try to stop the defensive slide.
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