FARM FRESH

The 2025 season served up several prospects with minor league seasons worth celebrating

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Farmers don't get to choose the weather. Whether it rains all summer or the soil dries out and cracks, harvest time comes and the silos are either filled or left near empty.

When it comes to picking our season-ending awards, we are a bit like farmers. We cannot control whether it's a bumper crop or a fallow period.

We choose a Minor League Player of the Year and, since 2022, a Minor League Pitcher of the Year. That's true whether it's a year overflowing with top prospects having standout seasons, or one in which no one clearly stood out. Some years we have a bounty of choices, some years we face slim pickings.

Readers, this year the silos are overflowing. This was one of those years when multiple prospects were worthy of the Minor League POY award. In the end, we felt like we had a clear choice, but there were plenty of other worthy candidates who in other seasons could easily have taken home the hardware.

In many years, Tigers shortstop Kevin McGonigle would have been a slam-dunk choice. He turned 21 late in the season while showing off his polished hitting ability by batting .305/.408/.583 with 19 home runs in 88 games, the final 46 at Double-A Erie. He knows the strike zone better than some of the umpires, as his 59-to-46 ratio of strikeouts and walks attests.

Notably, McGonigle began to grow into his power. In his standout 2024 season, spent mostly at Low-A, he hit just five homers in 74 games.

Here is a perfect encapsulation of why McGonigle is one of the best overall prospects: If you surveyed evaluators about the best pure hitter in the minors, the lefthanded hitter is likely to have his name on the most ballots.