Drafting prep position players with their top picks has been the core of the Detroit Tigers’ draft strategy since Scott Harris took over the club from Al Avila. It’s gone very, very well. Despite fears about the longer timelines involved, Kevin McGonigle, Max Clark, and Bryce Rainer are all ranked in the top half of national top 100 prospect lists already, with McGonigle set to debut as soon as Opening Day. That’s a pretty spectacular win rate through two drafts, and this year we’ll see the debut of first
round prep shortstop Jordan Yost, and prep catcher Michael Oliveto, their top two picks in the front office’s third draft class last summer. Perhaps in a year’s time the Tigers will have hit big on another pair of prep prospects at the top of the draft.
Oliveto was the Tigers selection in the competitive balance pick A round between the first and second rounds last summer. Selected 34th overall out of Hauppauge HS on New York’s Long Island, the Tigers paid him $2,447,500, about $400K underslot, to pry him from his commitment to Yale. As is the case with all catchers, especially if you ask them, Oliveto is a bright young man who posted a 1460 SAT score with the outstanding grades you’d expect.
The recently turned 19-year-old didn’t necessarily get the notice that a top young prep hitter would garner coming from baseball hotbeds in the south and out west, but he was comfortably the top prep hitter in the northeast. Between his junior and senior seasons, Oliveto broke into national consciousness in a big way with his monster performance in the Perfect Game WWBA World Championship in Jupiter, Florida where he mashed a pair of home runs and three other extra base hits in just 13 at-bats. While there are questions about his ability to stick as a catcher, this was one of the most exciting prep bats in the whole draft class.
Oliveto is a left-handed hitter, standing 6’3” and weighing in at 185 pounds on draft day. There is plenty of projection for him to get stronger, and a good chance that he develops plus power as he gets stronger. He has the athleticism to project as an outfielder as well as a catcher, but that athleticism gives him a good chance to develop into a top shelf backstop as well. The main defensive question is whether his current average arm strength will improve over time, and whether his bat may outpace his defense to a degree where the Tigers decide moving him to an easier position is the better option to get his bat into the lineup.
Those decisions are still years away, but the Tigers coach catchers very well in the minor leagues. Oliveto was the top prep hitter in his region as a catcher, while posting perfect grades and getting into Yale, so we can at least say that the intelligence, motivation, and overall work ethic are in place for Oliveto to develop his talent as far as it will take him. Whether his arm strength will tick up to make him more viable as a starting major league catcher is a question that won’t be answered for a few years.
The key selling point is Oliveto’s advanced plate discipline, eye for the zone, and power potential. He’s got the relaxed, confident approach you want to see in the batter’s box, and a smooth powerful left-handed stroke with present pull power. Whether he’ll develop the pitch recognition and batspeed to handle MLB caliber pitching can only be answered much further down the road. There’s always some skepticism for players in the northeast and Midwest who don’t face elite high school pitching that often, but Oliveto has shown everything you could ask against the competition he did face. You’ll recall some similar questions about Kevin McGonigle as a Philly area prep star, and we can only hope it goes that well.
The Tigers have already brought Oliveto over to major league camp for two games to get him a plate appearance or two in front of the bigger crowds. He’s put the ball in play twice. The fact that the Tigers figured he deserved those appearances as a treat bodes well for how he’s looked on the backfields this spring. A few clips from reporters on hand have shown him hitting some tanks in BP, but he’s already shown average raw power and a little more at times despite his youth, so no surprise there. We haven’t seen Jordan Yost in Grapefruit League action yet, for whatever that’s worth, but both are scheduled to be on the squad for next week’s Spring Breakout game, when the Tigers’ prospects will take on baseball’s top prospect, Konnor Griffin, and the Pirates’ farm on March 20th. Expect both to get at least one at-bat, as Bryce Rainer did last year in making his public pro debut.
My sense is that Oliveto is advanced enough at the plate that the Tigers will send him to play for the Single-A Lakeland Flying Tigers right away in April. If they’re comfortable with his catching enough to work behind the plate at that level, there isn’t much point to him spending a lot of time in Complex League ball. Long-term, Oliveto runs well enough to play corner outfield, and if his bat develops quickly, playing him there and at first base may be the move. For now, a good season at the plate with the Flying Tigers will end any lingering concerns about him facing weaker high school level pitching than prep hitters elsewhere in the country. That alone would send him up national rankings pretty quickly, especially if his work since draft day and throughout this season shows him refining his catching game.
