Sunday Notes: A Versatile Tiger, Zach McKinstry Deserved His Silver Slugger

Many were surprised when Zach McKinstry outpolled Kansas City’s Maikel Garcia and New York’s Ben Rice to win this year’s American League Silver Slugger Award at the utility position. That’s understandable — McKinstry’s numbers weren’t as good as those put up by his co-finalists — but the honor was nonetheless deserved. For one thing, he was a true utility player. Not only did McKinstry start 20 or more games for Detroit at each of third base (69), shortstop (27), and right field (20), he was stationed everywhere besides center field and catcher. Conversely, Garcia started just 21 games at positions other than third base, while Rice’s only action came as a catcher and a first baseman.

And it’s not as though the Tiger didn’t have solid numbers of his own. Over 511 plate appearances, McKinstry slashed .259/.333/.438 with a 114 wRC+. Moreover, he logged 23 doubles, 11 triples, 12 home runs, and 19 stolen bases. Amid little fanfare, the 30-year-old erstwhile Central Michigan University Chippewa was one of the more valuable players on a team that went on to play October baseball.

By most accounts, McKinstry is an overachiever. Exactly one thousand players were chosen before him in the 2016 draft, and he ranked as just the 28th-best prospect in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization when he made his MLB debut in 2020. When the Tigers subsequently traded for him in March 2023 — he was by then a Chicago Cub — he had appeared in 121 big-league games to the tune of a 79 wRC+ and 0.8 WAR.

McKinstry has gotten significantly more playing time since joining the Tabbies, but it wasn’t until this year that he truly earned his stripes. Coming into the campaign, he’d totaled just 13 home runs and a 78 wRC+ over 843 plate appearances with the club.

What was behind his breakout with the bat? When I asked McKinstry that question over the summer, he told me that it wasn’t something that happened all at once, but rather the culmination of “stepping stones along the way.” He began making those strides during his early days in the Dodgers system.

“I kind of opened things up a little bit to where I wasn’t afraid to try to do damage,” explained McKinstry, who batted .321 but didn’t go deep while a Chippewa. “In college it was more like ‘hit the ball on the ground the other way and just get on base.’ So, my first steps in pro ball were to drive the ball and get into the gaps a little more. Obviously, with that you need to be a little bit stronger. I wasn’t the biggest guy at Central — I was around 165-170 pounds — and now I’m sitting around 190 -195. A lot of that has come from staying consistent in the weight room. The Dodgers gave me a foundation to do that, and they also helped me get into my legs more. Whenever I’m struggling, I try to get back to feeling the ground, using that to produce more line drives and hit the ball a little harder.”

Bat speed and exit velocities aren’t among McKinstry’s strong suits — he ranks in the lower percentiles in both categories — but neither is a major concern. While the Tigers have helped him further improve as a hitter, they’ve primarily wanted him to stay within the parameters of his skillset.

“We look at my bat plane,” McKinstry said of working with Detroit’s hitting coaches. “My vertical attack angle is a big one, kind of trying to stay within that four range. That’s what we talk about mostly, staying around there and flattening out the bat a little bit. Really, it’s all about staying true to who I am.”

That would be someone who can provide offensive value while playing all over the field at the big-league level. McKinstry deserved his Silver Slugger.

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RANDOM HITTER-PITCHER MATCHUPS

Ozzie Guillen went 15 for 33 against Tom Gordon.

Jose Guillen went 13 for 25 against Mike Hampton.

Carlos Guillén went 11 for 16 against Esteban Loaiza.

Manny Sanguillen went 11 for 21 against Nolan Ryan.

Guillermo Heredia went 11 for 25 against Martín Pérez.

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Liam Hicks displayed good plate discipline and contact skills in his 2025 rookie season with the Miami Marlins. The 26-year-old catcher/first baseman swung at just 20.1% of pitches out of the strike zone — the third-lowest rate in MLB (min. 300 PAs) behind Juan Soto and Trent Grisham — and fanned in just 14.4% of his 390 plate appearances. His walk rate was a solid 14.4%, while his 98 wRC+ was better than expected for a player who was taken in last December’s Rule 5 draft. Hicks had been left unprotected by the Tigers, who had acquired the 2021 ninth-round pick from the Texas Rangers as part of the July 2024 Carson Kelly trade.

His .247/.346/.346 slash line is indicative of his desire to do more damage going forward. The Toronto native left the yard just six times, while his 84.6-mph exit velocity ranked in the first percentile among his contemporaries. He consistently put the bat on the baseball, but all too seldom with authority.

Hicks recognizes the need to improve in that area, but he also isn’t looking to become a bona fide thumper. When it comes to clearing fences, he views direction, and not just distance, as an obstacle to overcome.

“I feel like I hit a lot of balls to center field,” Hicks told me during the latter half of the season. “You look at that in the cage and you’re like, ‘Oh. That’s up the middle. It’s a good swing.’ But that’s the deepest part of the ballpark, so I’m trying to pull the baseball better. There are guys in the big leagues who don’t have craziest exit velos, yet they’re elite at pulling the baseball and can hit home runs by putting it down the line.

“It’s about picking your spots where you’re trying to get into a ball a little more,” he added. “But it’s also about becoming more explosive, rotating faster and making contact a little farther out in front to the pull side, and not worrying about swinging and missing. That said, I do take pride in my ability to make contact.”

The low exit velocities?

“We’ve been working on that, too,” said Hicks. “I hit a ball harder this year than I ever have before. I think it was 108.5 [mph], and my best [in 2024] was something like 107. It was a home run. I’m trying to learn how to do that a little more.”

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A quiz:

The same player has the most hits, home runs, and stolen bases by a catcher in Pittsburgh Pirates franchise history. Who is it? [A hint: All but one of his Pirates home runs came as a catcher, the other as a left fielder.)

The answer can be found below.

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NEWS NOTES

Seattle Mariners first baseman Josh Naylor has been named the winner of this year’s Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s Tip O’Neill Award, which honors the Canadian player judged to have excelled in individual achievement and team contribution while adhering to baseball’s highest ideals. Naylor hails from Mississauga, Ontario.

In related news, Sportsnet’s Hazel Mae has been honored with the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s 2025 Jack Graney Award, which is given out annually to a member of the media who has made significant contributions to baseball in Canada. Per the release, Mae’s professional career in the Toronto sports media began in 2001 and she now serves as an in-game reporter during Toronto Blue Jays telecasts.

Tim Harkness, a first baseman who played for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1961-1962, and for the New York Mets in 1963-1964, died on December 1 at age 87. A native of Lachine, Quebec, Harkness hammered 10 of his 14 big-league home runs in 1963 for a 111-loss Mets team that was managed by Casey Stengel. He had a two-homer game that season, the second of his bombs walking off the Milwaukee Braves in the16th inning at the Polo Grounds.

Jim Duckworth, a right-hander who played primarily for the Washington Senators in an MLB career that spanned the 1963-1966 seasons, died last month at age 86 (per Baseball Player Passings). The National City, California native went 7-25 with four saves and a 5.26 ERA over 267 innings. He was especially dismal at the dish. Duckworth recorded two hits (one of them a bunt single) and fanned 39 times in 59 at-bats.

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The answer to the quiz is Jason Kendall, who had 1,409 hits, 67 home runs (66 as a catcher), and 140 stolen bases while playing for the Pirates from 1996-2004. Ryan Doumit also homered 67 times for Pittsburgh, but while his primary position was catcher, he hit several of his bombs while stationed elsewhere.

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The Orioles signed Ryan Helsley as a free agent on Monday — my colleague Michael Rosen wrote about the deal here — after which the 31-year-old flamethrower took questions from the Baltimore media over Zoom. Partaking in the session, I asked Helsely about his increased slider usage. Whereas he once relied heavily on his high-90s fastball, he has thrown his go-to secondary more often than his heater in each of the past two seasons.

Why is that, and has the slider gotten better?

“Yeah, I actually think it has,” the righty replied, answering the second part of my question first. “Oddly enough, this last year was probably the worst of my career statistically, but from models and personal feel, everything was as good as it’s ever been. Maybe better. Hopefully I can keep progressing. I can’t wait to get to spring [training] to try to fine-tune things, and possibly add another pitch, working with the coaches.

“I think throwing more sliders was just a product of the game,” continued Helsley, who was traded to the New York Mets at last summer’s deadline after pitching exclusively for the St. Louis Cardinals since 2019. “Guys really train on hitting velo and are really good at hitting stuff that is straight. It doesn’t matter how hard it is, especially in fastball counts…. This last year, I threw those fastballs in those hitter’s counts, and that kind of led to the ballooned ERA and a tough year overall.”

My colleague addressed the applicable numbers in his article, so there is no need to repeat them here. But there is more to add from Helsley. MASN reporter Annie Kalff asked him about his arm angle which, as Rosen explained, had climbed 10 inches when throwing his fastball.

“My arm raising that high was not by design,” explained Helsey, who attributed the change to “a bit of a foot issue” that crept up in spring training and carried over into the season. “So, I’m trying to get back to where my stuff has played at its best. We have a lot of tools in Baltimore and across the league to be able to do that kind of stuff. The people in New York, they saw it right away too… I was trying to battle that, and my hand posture, but when you’re pitching in close games, or trying to close out a game in the big leagues in front of 45,000 people, you’re not thinking of too much stuff out there. It was hard to do that during the season so I’m really trying to focus on that stuff right now… I’m trying to get that perfect arm slot, whatever degree that is [and] be able to reinforce that.”

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A random obscure former player snapshot:

Four pitchers had double-digit wins on a 2002 Minnesota Twins team that finished atop the AL Central with a record of 94-67. Three of them — Rick Reed (15 wins), Kyle Lohse (13), and Eric Milton (13) — are names you probably recognize. All of them toed the rubber in at least 11 MLB seasons and had multiple noteworthy campaigns. The fourth name is far less familiar. If you’re not a Twins fan of a certain age, you likely haven’t heard of Tony Fiore.

A right-handed reliever from River Grove, Illinois, Fiore appeared in just 87 major-league games across the 2000-2003 seasons, 14 with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and 73 with the Twins. All told, he went 12-6 with a 4.39 ERA over 151-and-two-thirds frames. The bulk of his big-league action came in 2002. Fiore came out of the Minnesota bullpen 46 times that year (he also made two starts) and finished with a 3.16 ERA over 91 innings. Moreover, he was 10-3 in the win-loss column.

A few short years later, forgotten by all but a few, Fiore was taking the mound in Taiwan for the CPBL’s La New Bears. He also had a late-career stint with the Atlantic League’s Long Island Ducks and pitched for Italy in the 2007 Baseball World Cup.

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FOREIGN AFFAIRS

The KBO’s Hanwha Eagles have signed 26-year-old right-hander Wilkel Hernandez, who has been in the Detroit Tigers system since 2018, most recently at Triple-A Toledo. Hernandez is the second Tiger to take his talents to Korea in recent weeks, Matt Manning have inked a one-year deal with the Samsung Lions.

Shed Long Jr. is slashing .382/.463/.603 over 80 plate appearances for the Puerto Rican Winter League’s Cangrejeros de Santurce. The 30-year-old infielder — last in MLB with the Seattle Mariners in 2021 — has spent the last two seasons with the independent American Association’s Cleburne Railroaders, who are managed by erstwhile big-league slugger Pete Incaviglia.

J.C. Mejía has six saves and has allowed just one earned run over 17-and-two-thirds innings with the Dominican Winter League’s Tigres del Licey. The 29-year-old right-hander — last in MLB with the Milwaukee Brewers in 2023 — pitched in independent ball this past season with Diablos Rojos del Mexico.

Jirvin Morillo is 13-for-38 with two doubles, a triple, and a home run for the Australian Baseball League’s Sydney Blue Sox. The 18-year-old switch-hitting catcher in the Cincinnati Reds organization had a 111 wRC+ in the Dominican Summer League.

Eric Rataczak has been even more impressive in Sydney. The 24-year-old outfielder in the Miami Marlins system is 20-for-57 with four doubles and five home runs. Rataczak logged a 111 wRC+ and went deep six times between High-A Beloit and Double-A Pensacola.

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Termarr Johnson was one of the prospects I asked about when I talked to Ben Cherington at last month’s GM Meetings. Drafted fourth overall in 2022 by the Pittsburgh Pirates out of an Atlanta high school, the 22-year-old second baseman spent this past season at Double-A Altoona where he slashed .272/.363/.382 with nine home runs and a 118 wRC+ over 503 plate appearances.

“He had an under-the-radar season from our perspective,” Pittsburgh’s general manager told me. “He was playing in one of the most difficult parks for left-handed hitters in the minor leagues, was one of the youngest players in the [Eastern League], and was somewhere around 15-20 percent above league average. We though it was a very positive developmental year for him. He’s tracking well. We expect him to be in Triple-A next year. Termarr has the makings of a really good hitter.”

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LINKS YOU’LL LIKE

Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper wrote about how starting pitchers who throw hard have much longer MLB careers than those who don’t throw as hard.

At CBS Sports, R.J. Anderson gave us a history of baseball’s CBA negotiations.

At STL Sports Central, Bernie Miklasz explained how Chaim Bloom’s aggressive work to transform the Cardinals will eventually pay off.

MLB.com’s Michael Clair wrote about 18-year-old Athletics prospect Shotaro Morii, a two-way player who a decade ago was part of the youth team that won Japan’s MLB Cup.

The Athletic’s Eno Sarris and Chandler Rome teamed up to go inside how MLB teams evaluate player makeup — from top prospects to big-time free agents.

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RANDOM FACTS AND STATS

Roberto Clemente and Tommy Lasorda were teammates with the Triple-A Montreal Royals in 1954. The Pittsburgh Pirates took Clemente in that winter’s Rule 5 draft after he was left unprotected by the Brooklyn Dodgers.

In 2024 and 2025, there were just 15 MLB position players age 36 and older — the fewest since 1973, the year when the designated hitter was introduced (per last weekend’s always-excellent Boston Globe Sunday Notes column).

Graig Nettles had a .248 BA, 2,225 hits, 328 doubles, and 90 sacrifice flies.
Darrell Evans had a .248 BA, 2,223 hits, 329 doubles, and 90 sacrifice flies.

Miguel Cabrera had 511 home runs, 40 stolen bases, and a 139 wRC+.
Gary Sheffield had 509 home runs, 253 stolen bases, and a 141 wRC+.

Dale Murphy played in 162 games and had 36 home runs in each of the 1982, 1983, and 1984 seasons. In 1985, he played in 162 games and hit 37 home runs.

The Cincinnati Reds signed Dave Parker as a free agent on today’s date in 1983, ending the Hall of Fame outfielder’s 11-year tenure with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Parker went on to spend four seasons in Cincinnati, with 1985 standing out as the best. Playing for Pete Rose, “The Cobra” crushed a career-high 34 home runs and led the senior circuit with 125 RBIs.

The Milwaukee Brewers purchased Felipe Alou from the Montreal Expos on today’s date in 1973. The 38-year-old veteran of 17 big-league seasons went hitless in three at-bats in April 1974, then hung up the spikes, ending a playing career that included three All-Star berths and 2,101 hits, including 206 home runs.

Players born on today’s date include Carl Dale, whose 20.25 ERA is the highest in Brewers history for pitchers who threw at least four innings. Playing in his lone big-league season, the right-hander out of Winthrop University made four appearances for Milwaukee in 1999 and was charged with nine runs over four frames.

Also born on today’s date was Brian Schmack, a right-hander whose major-league career comprised 11 relief appearances for a 2013 Detroit Tigers team that finished with a record of 43-119. Schmack’s own record wasn’t nearly as dire, as he went 1-0, with a 3.46 ERA over 13 innings. He is now the head baseball coach at Valparaiso University.