As with our #35 prospect, LHP Ben Jacobs, right-hander Cale Wetwiska is another college pitcher that the Detroit Tigers paid a pretty penny for in the 2025 amateur draft. A seventh round pick out of a junior
college, Wetwiska pulled a well above slot deal for $647,500, where players drafted at that level were generally getting $260,000. He’s basically in that sweet spot between D1 college pitchers and prep arms. He won’t even turn 21 years old until April.
The Tigers scouting department did a nice job here finding Wetwiska at Northern Oklahoma College-Enid, the junior edition of the main D1 college. He was a high school quarterback in Oklahoma, and both a good hitting outfielder and a pitcher in junior college. He’s a pretty athletic 6’2” 190 pound specimen all around. So while he’s more developed than your average prep arm, he still has plenty of projection remaining. There’s risk based on his inexperience and limited pitch mix right now, but the raw stuff and athleticism gives him more upside than many at this level of slot bonus.
Wetwiska is typically 93-94 mph with his fourseam fastball, but he was scraping 96 mph with his best fastballs in his brief look at Single-A Lakeland after the draft. He has above average extension and induced vertical break already, both traits the Tigers crave and can develop a bit more. He backs it mainly with a cutter at 87-88 mph which is basically a hard slider without that much depth yet. He did show a truer slider at 84 mph in Lakeland with more down action, but wasn’t using it much. His changeup is still more of an afterthought and lacks enough movement and velocity separation from the fastball. Based on his high arm slot and release, he’s probably better off moving toward a straight change or a splitter if he can manage that.
Wetwiska isn’t the next Trey Yesavage, but it is a pretty high slot with a vertical forearm position into release. Pitchers like this often have good bat missing fourseamers and pitch up and down well with a wipeout slider or curveball, but struggle to move the ball horizontally. That can make them one dimensional, adding a bit to the relief risk here. However, his youth and lack of pitching experience make for more realistic hopes that he can develop a better third pitch in pro ball.
Until such a third pitch presents, Wetwiska still profiles a little more like a future reliever than a starting pitching prospect. Still you have to like the fact that he’s not coming from an advanced program with a state of the art pitching lab, and already has a pretty good fastball with several plus traits beyond velocity. There’s likely a lot more meat left on the bone than with your average D1 junior with a longer pedigree.
The Tigers have a fairly intriguing project here. Wetwiska is pretty likely to develop more velocity and his strike throwing is quite good for a junior college pitcher who was only three months past his 20th birthday on draft day. Considering his somewhat unrefined repertoire, he moves the ball around the zone and has pretty good feel for setting guys up. While other pitchers at this tier are more polished, Wetwiska offers more upside than most, and I’m very curious to see how the Tigers develop his secondary stuff to compliment a good fastball. With a few innings with the Lakeland Flying Tigers already under his belt, he should start there this season with a good chance to reach West Michigan this summer.
