Welcome to “Five Things We Liked From Last Week”, a weekly list of… five things we liked from last week:
1. MLB Draft
The 2025 MLB Draft is in the books, and it was an interesting and fun one for the Detroit Tigers.
With their first two picks, the Tigers went against the grain and selected shortstop Jordan Yost and catcher Michael Oliveto, despite their consensus rankings being a little lower than where they were picked. After further review, it’s easy to see why Detroit targeted these two high schoolers.
Yost is a smooth-swinging left handed hitter with an advanced approach at the plate, developing power in his projectable frame and a reputation as a very solid defender at short who runs well; while Oliveto is a left handed hitting catcher with an awesome swing that should produce good power. Oliveto is a little more raw defensively than Yost, but with a potentially above average hit tool combined with his already above average pop, the upside is big.
The Tigers went with high upside college pitchers Malachi Witherspoon and Ben Jacobs with their next two selections, and stayed relatively pitching heavy the rest of the draft. Of the 21 players drafted by Detroit, 13 were pitchers. They also leaned a little more college heavy this year, with 14 of the 21 selections coming from the collegiate level.
Of the late round picks, high school starter River Hamilton may be the most interesting. Selected in the 11th round, he’s a projectable 6’3” righty up to the mid 90s already with potential for an above average breaking ball, an above average changeup and above average command.
The Tigers selected a handful of high upside high school players (including Hamilton) in the draft, and the guess is that they hope to use some savings up top to spread down to those selections, and sign them over-slot to keep them from going to college.
It will be years before we know how solid of a draft class this becomes, but after the 2023-2024 drafts, it’s hard not to trust the Tigers when it comes to drafting.
2. Troy Melton
Prior to the 2025 season, the general consensus was that the Tigers had five top 100 prospects in their minor league system: Kevin McGonigle, Max Clark, Bryce Rainer, Josue Briceño and Thayron Liranzo.
Sitting just outside of that group according to most was right-handed starter Troy Melton. Drafted in the 4th round of the 2022 MLB Draft out of San Diego State, Melton shot up prospect lists after a strong 2023 season. His 2024 season at Double A Erie was a bit more up and down due to issues with the long ball, but his peripherals were still strong (27.7% strikeout rate, 7% walk rate, 3.14 xFIP).
Troy started the ’25 campaign back in Erie, where he dominated in 10 starts before earning a promotion to Toledo at the beginning of June.
Melton’s first three starts at AAA were a mixed bag, which was understandable as he was getting adjusted to a new level. But since then, he’s been straight shoving.
Including last Friday, in his last four starts covering just shy of 22 innings, Troy has allowed just two earned runs on 13 hits and four walks, with a whopping 32 strikeouts.
With the Tigers starting pitching depth getting tested lately, it wouldn’t be a surprise for Melton to work his way to Detroit by the end of the summer, if not sooner. It also wouldn’t be a surprise for the Tigers to try Melton out of the bullpen, which needs help and some swing and miss; both of which Troy could provide.
3. Thayron Liranzo
Among the Tigers five consensus top 100 prospects entering the 2025 season, Thayron Liranzo has gotten the least amount of love during the 2025 season, but that may start to change soon.
After arriving in the Jack Flaherty trade last summer, Liranzo went off in High A to finish the year, to the tune of a .315/.470/.562 slash (202 wRC+); and the Tigers saw enough to promote him to AA to start the 2025 season.
Some bumps in the road were to be expected, as Liranzo not only plays a premium position at catcher, but also because the jump to AA is considered a big one. And bumps in the road did happen, as Liranzo hit .180/.315/.344 in April. However, he started to turn a corner in early May, and has steadily improved with each passing month:
April: .180/.315/.344
May: .231/.359/.423
June: .242/.377/.435
July: .316/.381/.474
Overall, Thayron is currently running a .235/.355/.413 line, good for a 130 wRC+. His strikeout rate is slightly elevated at 27.2%, but his walk rate is an excellent 15.6%. And about that strikeout rate, here’s the monthly breakdown for Liranzo:
April: 38.4%
May: 25%
June: 24.6%
July: 16.7%
It’s clear that Thayron is starting to get a handle on AA pitching, despite being on average 2.7 years younger than the competition, and his development is right on track. With a solid finish to the year, it’s likely that Liranzo begins the ’26 season in Toledo, just one step from Detroit.
4. Carson Rucker
Since Scott Harris arrived in Detroit, and brought in assistant GMs Mark Conner and Rob Metzler, the Tigers have shown a proclivity for drafting high schoolers in the early rounds of the draft. We mentioned Kevin McGonigle, Max Clark and Bryce Rainer above, and all were drafted out of high school under Harris’ watch. They also went back to the high school ranks for their first two picks this year.
In the 2023 draft, the Tigers were able to save some money by signing Clark to an under-slot deal, and spreading some of the savings to sign Kevin McGonigle to an over-slot deal. They also went under-slot with Max Anderson (having a big year at AA) in round two, and utilized some of those savings on high schoolers Paul Wilson and Carson Rucker.
Wilson is unfortunately out for the year with an injury, and in an odd twist of fate, Rucker missed most of the ’24 season with an injury as well. But luckily for Rucker and Detroit, he’s back at it this year, and has been showing some promise of late.
Despite missing almost the entire ’24 season, Detroit promoted Rucker to Low A Lakeland to start the ’25 season. It was an aggressive assignment, and for the first few months of the year, it showed. On June 21st, Carson was hitting .181/.239/.231.
However, in the last 15 games, it appears that something has clicked for the still just 20 year old third baseman. Since June 22nd, Rucker is slashing .350/.391/.417, and has raised his season OPS by .083 in that span.
Rucker was fairly highly regarded coming out of high school, and with a smooth right-handed swing, still has a lot of potential. He’s worth keeping tabs on not only the rest of the season, but in the years to come as well.
5. Peyton Graham
The 2022 MLB Draft was former Tiger GM Al Avila’s last draft, and while Detroit’s class in hindsight may be considered a little hit or miss, 1st rounder Jace Jung has already reached the big leagues, 4th rounder Troy Melton is looking good as we’ve mentioned, and 8th rounder Jake Miller has some promise as well, among others.
In the 2nd round of the ’22 draft, Avila selected infielder Peyton Graham out of Oklahoma.
Graham arrived with a lot of promise, as some outlets had him ranked in their top 20 pre-draft rankings for example, and with several tools to dream on, the general thought was that the Tigers may have come out of the 2nd round with a steal.
Graham made his professional debut in Low A that summer, and put up solid numbers (.270/.345/.370 for a 108 wRC+), albeit in just 113 plate appearances.
However, in 2023, Graham struggled with some injuries and inconsistencies back at Low A, and finished the year with a 96 wRC+ in 239 PAs. Despite the up and down year, he was promoted to High A for the 2024 season, but had a similar season to 2023, again battling the injury bug as well as some inconsistency at the plate. His 93 wRC+ looked a lot like 2023’s, and despite an uptick in walk rate, a similar downtick in power gave some pause on how much helium Graham had in the system.
Peyton is back at High A for the 2025 season, and I’m happy to report that the arrow is trending back up. In 284 PAs, Graham is slashing .281/.362/.450 for a 130 wRC+. His strikeout rate is a manageable 23.2%, while his walk rate is solid at 9.9%; and taking a look at his batted ball data, the line drives are up by over 8% from his time in High A last year, and the groundballs are down by 4.6%. He’s also hit 7 home runs already this season, which matches the total for his pro career prior to 2025.
Like Thayron Liranzo, Graham has improved almost every month:
April: .222/.300/.270
May: .284/.368/.478
June: .313/.378/.550
July: .308/.413/.487
With a very solid 2025 season to date, Graham has put himself back on the radar; and with a sound all-around game, just like with Carson Rucker (and Liranzo for that matter), he’s worth monitoring the rest of this year and into the future.
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Chris Brown 
Rogelio Castillo 
Jerry McKennan