The Detroit Tigers Info You Need for the 2025 MLB Draft
The 2025 MLB Draft begins on July 13th. That’s about 12 weeks from now, so there’s still plenty of time to bone up. And both Ashley and Rogelio should be following soon with articles about some specific players.
But the NFL is having it’s big annual draft ruckus this week, and we can’t let them have all the fun. So what follows is a 10,000 foot view of this year’s draft, including the quality of the 2025 draft class, where the Detroit Tigers pick, and what direction we think they’ll take.
Draft Class Quality for 2025
To quote the great 20th century philosopher Jay Sherman, it stinks. Perhaps that’s a bit too reductive, but it’s hard to pass up the chance to shoehorn in a timely reference to an animated sitcom from the 1990s. But yes, the talent in this class is considered a little below-average, though perhaps a little deeper than usual. There is one clear area of strength, however.Â
Most notable this year is a strong crop of high school shortstops, which is generally one of the more favored draft demographics. Brady Ebel, Billy Carlson, Kayson Cunningham, Steele Hall, Ethan Holiday, and Eli Willits all figure to land in the first round. And there’s another solid group of prep infielders who should go off the board by pick 75 of so.
But just about every other draft demographic in 2025 is fringe-average or worse. Most drafts are judged by the quality and depth of the players at the top of the class. And this year’s upper echelon, if it even exists, is extremely shallow. There is no clear top pick, and probably only 3-4 players with the talent to be considered the 1-1 pick. The Washington Nationals have that first overall pick, in case you were wondering.
The lack of elite players does make for a very intriguing draft, where we can expect a lot of deal-making. It’s pretty reminiscent of the 2021 draft crop. You may remember that as the year the Tigers drafted Jackson Jobe 3rd overall, which seemed rather risky at the time. In any event, most evaluators think this is a bad year to be picking at the top of the draft. But it’s a pretty good year to have multiple picks in the top 50.
When Do the Detroit Tigers Pick?
Well, as luck would have it, the Detroit Tigers don’t pick at the top of the draft. And they DO have multiple picks in the top 50. This year they have the 24th pick in the first round, which is the latest they’ve drafted since 2012. They also own a Competitive Balance Round A pick, which is 34th overall. After that they pick 62nd, 98th, 129th, 159th, and so on.
Their total bonus pool, with the allowed 5% overage, is likely to be around $11.5 million. That’s slightly less than they had last year, even though their first pick was 11th overall. They should have plenty of room to maneuver and sign several players to above-slot deals.
The Tigers have never had the 24th overall pick before. They’ve picked 23rd twice (Derek Hill in 2014, Chris Baker in 1979). There have been several talented players taken 24th overall, though, including former Tigers outfielder Rondell White, as well as Chad Billingsley, Nico Hoerner, and Walker Buehler.
Detroit has also had the 34th pick before, though it didn’t work out terribly well. Christin Stewart (2015) accumulated -1.1 WAR before he was released. But other talents have fallen to this spot, including Mark Gubicza, Todd Frazier, and current Tigers hurler Jack Flaherty. And there’s always talent to be found in this general area. Just look at Kevin McGonigle, who went 37th overall in 2023.
The Detroit Tigers Draft Philosophy
Well, we haven’t been in the war room with them (yet), so we don’t know exactly what they look for in player. But we now have two drafts in the Scott Harris/Mark Conner era to study. And a few patterns have begun to emerge.
First, they aren’t scared to take high school players at any point in the draft. In the Dave Dombrowski and Al Avila eras the Tigers almost never signed prep players outside of the first round. The Tigers have signed 13 high schoolers in the last two drafts alone. It’s a high-risk, high-reward philosophy that seems to have followed Conner from San Diego to Detroit.
Second, the Tigers love up-the-middle athletes who show quality hit tools, speed, and, unsurprisingly, the ability to control the strike zone. In the last two years the Tigers have drafted and signed 17 position players. Only one of them, Carson Rucker, was listed at a corner position (3B).
The Harris/Conner Tigers don’t appear to have an obvious tell when drafting pitching. One thing they haven’t done so far is chase velocity. They’ve taken some hard throwers, for sure, but that doesn’t seem to move them as much as pitchers with standout traits. For one pitcher that could mean standout fastball IVB with a downer curve. For another that might mean big horizontal movement on the sinker and a high-spin slider.
It will be fun to see which players the Tigers target in this year’s draft. And we’ll do our best over the next few months to introduce you as many players as we can.
Joe Rampe