Kansas City, Mo. — Before the game Monday, manager AJ Hinch joked that he was trying to play Zach McKinstry at every position.
“He won’t catch,” he said, and then checked himself. “Well, I mean, knock on wood, you never know.”
McKinstry started the game at shortstop Monday and in the ninth inning moved to third base. There have been games this season when he’s started in the outfield and moved into the infield and vice versa. He’s played second, short, third, right, left and center. And he’s also pitched.
“He is so valuable to us,” Hinch said. “Not just because he can go stand there, but because he’s actually pretty good at it. He’s good at these positions.”
FanGraphs rates him overall a 4.2 runs above average defender. The major league average is 3.9. He’s plus-4 overall in the outfield in terms of defensive runs saved. His range and jumps on the ball (top 25 percentile) are above average. His arm strength is elite, in the top 3 percentile with an average velocity of 96.3 mph.
Yeah, he’s been pretty darn good at every position.
“It is what it is,” McKinstry shrugged. “It’s kind of who I’ve become as I’ve gotten more and more into my big-league career. I’ve stepped into that role. Just get out there and play as well as I can.”
He’s loving it. Especially the part about being in the lineup nearly every day. With more than two months left in the season, he has already played in a career-high 85 games with a career-high 298 plate appearances. It’s the opportunity he’s waited for and worked for since he left Central Michigan University in 2015.
“It just gives you the confidence to go out there and play the game,” he said. “I feel like a little kid again, just going out and enjoying it and being around the guys. I just let them create the momentum for me and I just use it.”
Overall, he’s hitting .242 with a .318 on-base percentage, 90 OPS-plus with six homers and 37 runs scored. He’s also stolen 12 bases in 13 attempts.
The concern, at least through the month of June, was that he might’ve been wearing down. The work he has to put in pregame alone is exhausting. If he’s starting in the outfield, he will do drill work and then live shag balls during batting practice to work on reads and jumps. After that, he will take a round of ground balls in the infield.
If he’s starting in the infield, he will do more ground ball work and less outfield work.
“He doesn’t ask a lot of questions,” Hinch said. “He’s not very high maintenance about it. He does prepare and get his work done. It’s not easy to do.”
On top of that, the Tigers faced a long run of right-handed starters in June, which meant the lefty swinging McKinstry was hitting at the top of the batting order day after day. He started 20 of 23 games in one stretch and came off the bench in the other three.
His production waned.
In 23 games between June 6 and June 30, he endured a 13-for-74 (.176) skid with 17 strikeouts. Fastballs were overpowering him, which hasn’t been the case at any other point in the season, as his .282 batting average against four-seamers and two-seamers indicates.
“Yeah, I thought he wore down a little bit,” Hinch said. “We’re going to be facing some left-handed pitching coming up, so he’s going to get some breaks. But he’s earned those at-bats. The reason he’s got the most in his career is because he’s performed and contributed.”
He’s hit the ball hard this month and hit safely in eight of 11 games. But his stat line during that stretch — .233 average, .233 on-base — is deceptive. He took an 0-for-4 Monday even though he hit two balls on the screws. He smacked a ball 378 feet to the wall in right field that was tracked and caught. He hit another line drive right at the center fielder.
That’s been a theme. His expected slugging percentage this season (.412) is higher than his actual slugging percentage (.364).
“I’m just trying to make sure I have good at-bats,” he said. “I’ll get the bleeders, too. Hit it over the shortstop’s head softly and things like that. You just have to keep your mental sanity and keep it going. Maybe I will get a month where five or six of those drop.”
With his low chase rate (27.6%), low whiff rate (19.5%) and low strikeout rate (20.8%), he gives himself a chance for that to happen.
His next adjustment will be to devise a plan to combat the flurry of sliders he’s been seeing. Per Statcast, his run value against sliders is a minus-5. He’s hitting .150 against them with a 30% whiff rate.
“Right before the break it was all fastballs and right after the break it’s been all sliders,” McKinstry said. “I’m just trying to stay with it. I think my at-bats are going well. I’m just trying to hit the ball hard. I’ve had an OK start to the second half. I need to continue to build on it.”
Around the horn
Riley Greene, for the first time in his career Monday, played a game against the Kansas City Royals and didn’t get a hit. He’d hit safely in 18 straight games, the second longest active streak against one team in the big leagues. He went 0-for-3 and was hit by a pitch Monday.
chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @cmccosky