SAN DIEGO (AP) — Kevin McGonigle quickly proved that the Detroit Tigers' made the right call by putting him on their opening day roster.
The 21-year-old rookie hit the first big league pitch he saw for a bases-loaded, two-run double in the Tigers' four-run first inning against San Diego on Thursday. He kept on going, getting hits in his next two at-bats as well as scoring his first big league runs.
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Detroit Tigers' Dillon Dingler (13) is congratulated by Kevin McGonigle (7) after hitting a two-run home run during the fifth inning of an opening-day baseball game against the San Diego Padres Thursday, March 26, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy) CORRECTS SPELLING OF McGonigle from McGonigal.
Detroit Tigers' Kevin McGonigle (7) celebrates after hitting an RBI double as San Diego Padres shortstop Xander Bogaerts (2) looks on during the first inning of an opening-day baseball game Thursday, March 26, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy) CORRECTS SPELLING OF McGonigle from McGonigal.
Detroit Tigers' Kevin McGonigle (7) hits a double during the third inning of an opening-day baseball game against the San Diego Padres Thursday, March 26, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy) CORRECTS SPELLING OF McGonigle from McGonigal.
Detroit Tigers' Kevin McGonigle (7) hits a double during the third inning of an opening-day baseball game against the San Diego Padres Thursday, March 26, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy) CORRECTS SPELLING OF McGonigle from McGonigal.
Detroit Tigers' Kevin McGonigle watches his RBI double during the first inning of an opening-day baseball game against the San Diego Padres, Thursday, March 26, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy) CORRECTS SPELLING OF McGonigle from McGonigal.
He added a fourth hit in the ninth inning and finished 4 for 5 with two RBIs and two runs scored in the Tigers' 8-2 win.
“I guess I've got to start not sleeping before every game. Last night, I got barely any sleep,” McGonigle said. “I'm just happy we won today and I'm looking forward to keep helping this team as much as I can this year.”
He said he got about four hours of sleep, “but woke up feeling great, ready to go.”
McGonigle was the youngest Tigers player named to an opening day roster since Omar Infante in 2003.
And then he became the youngest Tigers player with three hits in his debut since Shannon Penn on April 28, 1995.
McGonigle kept the line moving as the Tigers took advantage of Nick Pivetta's wildness in support of two-time AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal.
Batting sixth, he came up for the first time as a big leaguer after Pivetta threw four straight balls to Spencer Torkelson to bring in the Tigers' first run with one out on a sunny, 74-degree afternoon at Petco Park. He drove the first pitch he saw down the right field line to bring in Colt Keith and Riley Greene for a 3-0 lead.
“First pitch, cutter up and in. I knew he was going up with something firm and he threw it right in the spot I was looking at and I was happy to pull it down the line,” McGonigle said.
“I was nervous,” he added. “It's weird. I think right when I started my load to hit, it went away. I felt great out there, very confident. I'm looking to keep that going.”
McGonigle followed that with a fly ball off the top of the right field wall in the third and hustled into second for another double to move Spencer Torkelson to third base. They both scored on Parker Meadows' single to left field.
He beat out an infield single to shortstop in the fifth and was aboard for Dillon Dingler's homer that made it 8-0.
McGonigle, who started at third base, finally made an out in the seventh when he popped up to third baseman Manny Machado in shallow left.
Several family members were in attendance and McGonigle planned to give each of his parents a ball that was used in the game.
A first-round pick in the 2023 draft, McGonigle had a hot spring that allowed him to skip Triple-A after playing in just 46 games in AA last season.
“What a debut,” manager A.J. Hinch said.
“He can hit. He won't be as nervous as that at-bat, and if that's the nervous version of him, we're in for a fun year,” the manager added. “I like the fact he was aggressive on his pitch. Obviously a big hit to open up the game a little bit and give us some breathing room. That set the tone for a really good day for him and for us.”
Said Greene: “It looked like that was his, like, 700th game out there. It was pretty impressive to see. It's pretty cool to see.”
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Detroit Tigers' Dillon Dingler (13) is congratulated by Kevin McGonigle (7) after hitting a two-run home run during the fifth inning of an opening-day baseball game against the San Diego Padres Thursday, March 26, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy) CORRECTS SPELLING OF McGonigle from McGonigal.
Detroit Tigers' Kevin McGonigle (7) celebrates after hitting an RBI double as San Diego Padres shortstop Xander Bogaerts (2) looks on during the first inning of an opening-day baseball game Thursday, March 26, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy) CORRECTS SPELLING OF McGonigle from McGonigal.
Detroit Tigers' Kevin McGonigle (7) hits a double during the third inning of an opening-day baseball game against the San Diego Padres Thursday, March 26, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy) CORRECTS SPELLING OF McGonigle from McGonigal.
Detroit Tigers' Kevin McGonigle (7) hits a double during the third inning of an opening-day baseball game against the San Diego Padres Thursday, March 26, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy) CORRECTS SPELLING OF McGonigle from McGonigal.
Detroit Tigers' Kevin McGonigle watches his RBI double during the first inning of an opening-day baseball game against the San Diego Padres, Thursday, March 26, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy) CORRECTS SPELLING OF McGonigle from McGonigal.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday he would sign an order instructing the Homeland Security secretary to immediately pay Transportation Security Administration agents as Congress struggled to reach a deal to end a budget impasse that has jammed airports and left workers without paychecks.
Trump announced his decision in a social media post saying he wanted to quickly stop the “Chaos at the Airports.”
“It is not an easy thing to do, but I am going to do it!” the president posted.
With pressure mounting, the White House had floated the extraordinary move of invoking a national emergency to pay TSA agents, while senators were reviewing a “last and final” offer from Republicans to Democrats to end the funding impasse at the Department of Homeland Security.
Details of the president’s plan were not immediately available, but a national emergency declaration would be politically fraught and almost certain to face legal challenges. Instead, the president may simply be shifting money from other sources.
Democrats have been refusing to fund the Homeland Security as they demand changes to rein in Trump’s immigration enforcement operations. The Senate came to a standstill and senators, ready to leave town for their own spring break, had prepared to stay all night to reach a deal.
“The president is doing absolutely the right thing," said Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., the GOP whip. “The TSA agents are going to be paid."
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee, has said there was funding elsewhere that can be legally used to pay TSA as well as the Coast Guard, without declaring a national emergency.
The funding shutdown, now in its 41st day, has resulted in travel delays, missed paychecks and even warnings of airport closures. TSA workers are coming up on their second missed payday Friday, with thousands refusing to show up for work.
Multiple airports are experiencing greater than 40% callout rates of TSA workers and nearly 500 of its nearly 50,000 transportation security officers have now quit during the shutdown. Nationwide on Wednesday, more than 11% of the TSA employees on the schedule missed work, according to DHS. That is more than 3,120 callouts.
Trump, who has largely left the issue to Congress to resolve, had warned he was ready to take action, even threatening to send the National Guard to airports, in addition to his deployment of ICE agents who are now checking travelers' IDs — a development drawing concerns. The White House has been considering a menu of options.
“They need to end this shutdown immediately or we'll have to take drastic measures,” Trump said during a morning Cabinet meeting at the White House.
At George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Melissa Gates said she would not make her flight to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, after waiting more than 2½ hours and still not reaching the security checkpoint. She said no other flights were available until Friday.
“I should have just driven, right?” Gates said. “Five hours would have been hilarious next to this.”
Earlier Thursday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., announced he had given the final offer to the Democrats.
Thune did not disclose details of the new framework, but he said that it picked up on what had been the Republican offer over the weekend, before talks with the White House and Democrats had broken off.
“Enough is enough,” he said.
But as senators retreated to privately discuss the new plan, the action stalled out.
Democrats argue the GOP proposals have not gone far enough at putting guardrails on officers from ICE, Customs and Border Protection and other federal agencies who are engaged in the immigration sweeps, particularly after the deaths of two Americans protesting the actions in Minneapolis.
They want federal agents to wear identification, remove their face masks and refrain from conducting raids around schools, churches or other sensitive places. Democrats have also pushed for an end of administrative warrants, insisting that judges sign off before agents search people's homes or private spaces.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said they needed to see real changes. “We’ve been talking about ICE reforms from day one,” he said.
Any deal will almost certainly need to involve a compromise as lawmakers on the left and right flanks revolt. Conservative Republicans have panned their own GOP proposals, demanding full funding for immigration operations and skeptical of the promise from leaders that they would address Trump’s proof-of-citizenship voting bill in a subsequent legislative package.
Republicans said after a private lunch meeting that there were other options to shift money than invoking the national emergency.
The GOP’s big tax cuts bill that Trump signed into law last year funneled billions to DHS, including $75 billion for ICE operations, ensuring the money is flowing for his immigration and deportation agenda even with the funding shutdown. ICE and other immigration officers are still being paid.
Republicans say the Trump administration has already made strides to meet Democrats’ demands, particularly after swearing in former Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin as the new homeland security secretary to replace Kristi Noem. He has given a nod to the need for the judicial warrants for searches.
“This is a dire situation,” the acting TSA administrator, Ha Nguyen McNeill, testified at a House hearing Wednesday.
She described the multiple hardships facing unpaid TSA workers — piling up bills and eviction notices, even plasma donations to make ends meet — and warned of potential airport closures if more employees refuse to come to work.
“At this point, we have to look at all options on the table,” she said.
McNeil also said TSA officers working at the nation’s airports have experienced a more than 500% increase in the frequency of assaults since the shutdown began.
“This is unacceptable,” McNeill said.
Associated Press writers Joey Cappelletti, Kevin Freking, Rebecca Santana and Ben Finley in Washington, Lekan Oyekanmi in Houston, Wyatte Grantham-Philips in New York, Rio Yamat in Las Vegas, Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, and Gabriela Aoun Angueira in San Diego contributed to this report.
Prior to votes, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., makes a statement to a forum on climate change and the consequences for home insurance, grocery prices, and health care costs, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, March 26, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., is met by reporters after a closed door meeting with fellow Republicans on the Homeland Security budget stalemate, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, March 26, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
A young passenger waits in line with his mother to be checked in with TSA at O'Hare Airport in Chicago, Thursday, March 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)
Passengers stand in the TSA pre-check line at Laguardia Airport, Thursday, March 26, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)
Passengers stand in the TSA pre-check line at Laguardia Airport, Thursday, March 26, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)
Travelers line up at a TSA checkpoint at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Thursday, March 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Lekan Oyekanmi)
Sen. Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., speaks during a news conference after a policy luncheon on Capitol Hill,Tuesday, March 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
Travelers line up at a TSA checkpoint at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Thursday, March 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Lekan Oyekanmi)
Travelers line up at a TSA checkpoint at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Thursday, March 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Lekan Oyekanmi)
President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, Thursday, March 26, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Passengers wait in a security checkpoint line at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, Wednesday, March 25, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Passengers wait in a security checkpoint line at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, Wednesday, March 25, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill, left, testifies as Nicholas Andersen, acting director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, right, listens during a House Committee on Homeland Security hearing on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, March 25, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
Passengers wait in a security checkpoint line at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, Wednesday, March 25, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Passengers wait in a security checkpoint line at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, Wednesday, March 25, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Travelers wait in a TSA line, Wednesday, March 25, 2026, at LaGuardia Airport in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
