The Detroit Tigers have three players in the mix for 2026 All-MLB Team honors: outfielder Riley Greene, shortstop Kevin McGonigle and catcher Dillon Dingler.
With the regular season now finished, the focus shifts to individual awards, and the All-MLB process is one of the first stops on that road. Each organization can put forward one, two or even more names if it believes they belong, and the Tigers went with three players who spent the year as constant fixtures in the conversation.
Fans can vote through October 9, and their ballots will count for half of the final decision. The other half comes from a panel made up of media members, former players and baseball officials.
The All-MLB Team will include three outfielders, one designated hitter, five starting pitchers and two relievers on both the first and second teams. Detroit has a legitimate shot to land at least one selection, though the strongest case appears to be for McGonigle or Dingler.
Greene’s case is complicated by the injury that kept him out for too long. He played 15-20 fewer games than the top outfield names, and that gap in volume is tough to overcome.
Dingler and McGonigle both earned All-Star recognition this season, and for good reason. Dingler finished second among catchers in both RBI and home runs, even if his late-summer stretch was rougher than he would have liked.
McGonigle didn’t bring the same power as Dingler, but he was a steady force at the plate all year. He finished fourth in batting average at .278, first in on-base percentage at .376 and third in OPS at .806.
He never looked rattled against big league pitching, which is a big reason he has emerged as the front-runner for AL Rookie of the Year. An All-MLB nod would be a fitting way to cap what has already been an impressive 2026 for the rookie.
The Tigers’ season did not go the way the organization expected, but the individual work turned in by Greene, McGonigle and Dingler deserves its place in the spotlight.
In Other News...
Which Tigers Still Look Like Core Pieces After An Uneven 2026
The Tigers uneven 2026 season left them short of the postseason, but it also clarified which players still look like part of the long-term picture. Tyler Holton gave the bullpen a lift after settling in midseason, while Dillon Dingler continued to make his case as more than just a complementary catcher with an All-Star nod and strong defensive numbers. Riley Greene also moved in the right direction, trimming his strikeouts while improving his overall value, and Tyler Melton offered enough steady work on the mound to remain part of the conversation despite some arm fatigue late.
Even with those bright spots, the larger question hanging over the roster is whether enough of the supporting cast can stabilize around them. The bullpen remained a weakness overall, which made Holtons improvement stand out even more, and Meltons late injured list stint only added to the uncertainty around the pitching staff. For a club that spent too much time stuck between surges and slumps, identifying the true core matters now as much as sorting out what still needs to be fixed. [Read more 🡒]
Kevin McGonigle Just Got Dragged Into A Debate Tigers Fans Hate
Kevin McGonigles rookie season gave Tigers fans plenty to celebrate, and the numbers behind it were as loud as the highlights. He finished 2026 with a 7.1 bWAR, the best mark in the American League and fourth-best in baseball, while his 5.4 fWAR led all MLB rookies. For a first-year player, that kind of production naturally invites big-picture praise, especially in Detroit, where every sign of a homegrown star tends to get magnified.
So it was probably inevitable that the debate machine would spin up around him anyway. Former utility man Jeff Frye took aim at WAR as a way to measure McGonigle, and Tigers fans reacted quickly, partly because the argument feels like a familiar one and partly because McGonigles first season has been strong enough to make any dismissive take sound risky. The comparison between McGonigles rookie line and Fryes career numbers only sharpened the point, leaving the broader discussion less about whether the Tigers have a standout young player and more about which lens people want to use to appreciate him. [Read more 🡒]
Tigers Head Into 2027 With One Painful Problem Still Unsettled
Detroits 2026 season offered a strange mix of frustration and reassurance, the kind that leaves a front office with more questions than answers. The Tigers could point to real pitching strengths, including top-10 starter and bullpen ERAs and the lowest quality of contact allowed in MLB, but those gains were undercut by a roster that never quite held together at the margins. Fastball velocity lagged, production out of the eight spot never gave the lineup much length, and the team repeatedly came up short with runners on first and second.
The most damaging pattern showed up late, where the eighth inning became a recurring problem and the bullpen finished with a franchise-record 32 blown saves. For a club trying to build around run prevention and steadier execution, that kind of late-game instability is hard to ignore, especially when the offense still lacks consistency in key spots. The Tigers have enough on-paper strength to believe the foundation is there, but the way 2026 unraveled makes it clear that bullpen construction and lineup reliability remain the biggest unresolved issues heading toward 2027. [Read more 🡒]