Zach McKinstry

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Zachary McKinstry

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Biographical Information[edit]

Zach McKinstry parlayed a terrific partial season with the Oklahoma City Dodgers in 2019 into a spot on the roster of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and made his major league debut with them in 2020.

Zach was born in Toledo, OH, went to high school in Fort Wayne, IN, and attended college at Central Michigan University. He was drafted in the 33rd round of the 2016 Amateur Draft.

His 2016 and 2017 seasons in the minors were not particularly notable as his batting averages were in the general range of .250 and he showed little home run power. 2018, however, marked the start of more impressive play with batting averages over .300 for two of the teams he played for, and he showed somewhat more power. In 2019, after playing most of the season with the Tulsa Drillers, and posting a line of .279/.352/.455, he came up to Oklahoma City for 26 games, hitting .382 and slugging .753.

Defensively in the minors, most of his games have been at second base, third base and shortstop, in that order. This ability to play middle infield undoubtedly helped him make the Dodgers' roster as Dodgers infielder/outfielder Kiké Hernandez was likely to become a free agent at the end of the 2020 season. He joined the Dodgers near the end of the season, and appeared in 4 games, going 2-for-7 with the bat for a .286 average. Defensively, most of his innings were in right field. He did replace Hernandez on the roster at the start of the 2021 season and in the team's third game, on April 3rd, he had the honor of hitting the Dodgers' first home run of the season. It came as a pinch-hitter in the 8th innings against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field, and was an inside-the-park homer. LF Raimel Tapia managed to keep the ball from leaving the park, but hurt himself as he banged the fence doing so, and by the time he could recover the ball and relay it back to the infield, McKinstry had circled the bases. Interestingly, the last Dodgers player to have his his first career homer inside-the-park was none other than future Hall of Famer Duke Snider, way back in 1948. He hit .215 in 60 games that year, with 7 homers and 29 RBIs. He did not appear in the postseason.

Zach spent most of the first half of 2022 in the minor leagues, only appearing in 10 games for L.A., with his only hit in 11 at-bats being a homer. On July 30th, he was traded to the Chicago Cubs in return for reliever Chris Martin. He played 47 games with Chicago, hitting .206 with 4 homers and 12 RBIs. He was on the move again after the season, being traded to the Detroit Tigers in return for minor leaguer Carlos Guzman. He appeared in a career-high 148 games in 2023 even though he was the prototypical utility player: he had 52 games at third base, 47 at second base, 38 in right field, 23 at shortstop, 22 in left field, and a few at various and sundry other positions, including one inning as a pitcher. He hit .231 with 9 homers and 35 RBIs, for an OPS+ of 78 and also had 16 stolen bases. He was back in a similar role in 2024, and while players of his type tend not to receive much coverage, he did so on April 13th due to an unusual sequence of events. In a nightmarish 12th inning during the first game of a doubleheader against the Minnesota Twins, he first committed a three-run error as the Tigers' third baseman, then when manager A.J. Hinch made a mistake and made one mound visit too many, he was forced to take over as a pitcher because no one was warmed up. Taking over for Alex Lange, he gave up a walk to Manuel Margot, followed by a homer to Matt Wallner before he retired Byron Buxton to end the inning. Detroit lost the game, 11-5.

Further Reading[edit]

  • Jason Beck: "Infielder makes 3-run error then surrenders 3-run homer in 'mess of an inning': Hinch's mistake with number of visits prompts position switch during pivotal 7-run 12th", mlb.com, April 13, 2024. [1]

Related Sites[edit]

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