Scott Harris’ second draft with scouting chiefs Rob Metzler and Mark Conner followed a similar set of preferences, but in a much more challenging position as the Tigers had the 11th overall selection, and their compensation pick was set after the second round this time around. As a result, they were working with a much smaller bonus pool this time around.
Overall, their strategy didn’t change a whole lot other than more emphasis on pitching this time around. They shelled out big bonuses for Owen Hall
and Ethan Schiefelbein, both prep pitchers, but they also went after more college pitching while continuing to emphasize undervalued, athletic position players with solid hit tools, who they hoped would grow into the batspeed to handle major league pitching and eventually hit for enough power to be viable. Unfortunately, that emphasis on pitching currently has this draft looking signficantly weaker in terms of depth, as this group has been injured quite a bit, while several of the pitchers who were working out ended up traded for help at the 2025 trade deadline.
Of course, the most important thing, particularly with poorer draft position, is getting the top pick right, and the Tigers may have hit another home run with prep shortstop Bryce Rainer. The 20-year-old is only about 100 games into his pro career, but he is showcasing ludicrous raw power that only young Riley Greene has approached in the Tigers’ system with a strong eye for the strike zone. To get this level of power and zone judgement in a prep hitter who is a viable shortstop with a huge throwing arm and enough speed to steal 10-15 bases a year at the major league level was a pretty big win.
1- SS Bryce Rainer (Harvard-Westlake HS) $5,710,000
The Tigers paid just a bit overslot to Rainer to lock him up.
Paranoia was rampant in April as Rainer struggled to get back to form after a major shoulder surgery late last spring that caused him to miss the second half of the season, and kept him from even swinging a bat at full speed until spring training. Fans were understandably concerned, but it didn’t help that some national prospect sources completely whiffed on the context and started treating him like a developing bust. Rainer has quickly put that to rest by handling an aggressive assignment to High-A West Michigan, settling in through late May, and then absolutely going nuts over the past five weeks.
Everything Rainer connects with seems to leave his bat at 110 mph and exit velocities of 112-114 mph are commonplace for him. His heavily opposite field approach has balanced out as he made some adjustments in his stance and setup to unlock the pull field more consistently. There’s still too much swing and miss to throw caution to the wind and call him the best prospect in baseball, but this is a player with very little pro experience and two years out of high school who is routinely mauling experienced college pitchers two to four years older than himself while playing a good shortstop and chipping in some speed on the basepaths as well. If the projection is a first base style slugger who does tremendous damage while punching out a lot, but in a plus shortstop, well that’s one heck of a player. In Rainer’s case though, he’s just getting started.
2- RHP Owen Hall (Edmond North HS) $1,890,000
Hall showed really impressive metrics coming into his first spring camp in 2025, but only pitched a little bit before getting shut down for most of the season. He’s talented, with plenty of projection, and still only 20 years old, and he’s now building himself up in the Complex League and should spend most of the rest of the season in Single-A Lakeland, so his story is just at its beginning at this point.
CB-B- LHP Ethan Schiefelbein (Corana HS) $1,090,000
The news with Schiefelbein is less promising as he hasn’t been able to stay on the mound for anything length of time. A more polished prep pitcher than Hall, Schiefelbein doesn’t project to have the same premium velocity and breaking stuff. He’s more of a command and control lefty, but with enough projection in his frame to potentially develop into more of a power pitcher. For now, he needs to get beyond the injuries and start building up reps in pro ball. It doesn’t feel like that’s going to happen this season.
3- RHP Josh Randall (University of San Diego) $892,600
Randall was a fairly promising right-handed starter with a decent fastball and a pretty nasty slider to work with. He was making progress last year, but was ultimately traded to the Washington Nationals in the Kyle Finnegan trade. They promoted him to Double-A this season, but he’s struggled badly with the long ball so far. Still, he’s a nice arm in their system and may develop into a big leaguer, but probably not into a high end starting pitcher.
4- RHP Michael Massey (Wake Forest) $637,200
Massey is a pretty nasty right-hander and this one of the best received pitcher picks in this draft. But like the rest, Massey has been mostly sidelined with injuries. Now 23 years old, he doesn’t have the long timeline of a prep pitcher to figure things out and develop into a major league pitcher. The shoulder trouble and a nasty oblique injury have cost him two years now. Things need to turn around rapidly next season.
5- SS Jack Penney (Notre Dame) $492,300
The 23-year-old Penney was an interesting pick for them to spend money on after landing Brett Callahan and John Peck for basically the minimum bonus the year prior. Penney makes a lot of contact and is a good shortstop. He seriously lacks batspeed and power, however. A hand injury has him on the shelf, but shouldn’t impact his long-term development. The Tigers clearly expect the power to come along to some extent, but he’ll be 24 years old soon and it doesn’t appear to be working out.
6- SS Woody Hadeen (UC-Irvine) $354,100
Hadeen is another good athlete with plenty of contact ability. He doesn’t have the batspeed to turn into a major league regular, but he’s a smart player with a lot of defense and baserunning ability. Hadeen’s discipline and versatility could make him a utility player, but he’s got to get a little stronger and start driving the ball up the gaps more often to really be viable even as a future bench player.
7- OF Jackson Strong (Canisius) $276,700
This center fielder was a little more in the Tigers’ sweet spot in terms of value, as a good athlete from a smaller school. On the other hand, while he’s a solid defender and has some power as well, he lacks the higher end bat-to-ball skills they’ve found elsewhere with picks like this. Strong has pretty good zone discipline and enough pop to possibly make it as a strong-side platoon outfielder who will probably be an average center fielder. He needed to start recognizing pitches more effectively rather than just hunting fastballs to have success. Still, he’s got good speed and the raw power to develop into a dangerous offensive player, and for the price you’ll take that in a legitimate center field prospect. In the past month, Strong has really cut down the chase and started doing a lot of damage. It’s a bit early to call it a full-on breakout, but we’re getting there.
8- LHP Ethan Sloan (Regis University) $221,400
Sloan so far is an underpowered lefty reliever with a funky release and a solid sinker-slider combination. There’s not a lot of juice here, but he came equipped with a good enough set of pitches that he could prove useful eventually if his command continues to develop. If the velocity finally pops a little more he could make a good reliever in the Tigers’ bullpen in another two years, but right now he’s just a lottery ticket without a big jackpot at the end of the rainbow if things come together.
9- RHP Zach Swanson (Toutle Lake HS) $195,100
This hard-throwing prep right-hander was my favorite pick in this draft after the first round. With mid-90’s velocity and occasionally more, plenty of projection in his frame, and the ability to spin the baseball, Swanson arrived with a ton of upside. He underwent Tommy John surgery early in 2025, and is currently working his way back in rehab work. He’ll be one to watch if everything in his recovery went well, but while the stuff should be big, he’s obviously got a long road ahead to develop major league command.
10- RJ Sales (UNC-Wilmington) $183,300
Sales came equipped with a pretty good fastball and solid breaking stuff. He was tracking more like a future relief prospect at least when the Tigers dealt him to Washington in the Kyle Finnegan trade. They did their homework, getting a pretty good arm as the second prospect in that deal behind Josh Randall. Unfortuately for him, injury struck this year as well, and he hasn’t pitched in 2026, presumably due to a shoulder injury although there are no details available.
11- LHP Micah Ashman (Utah) $150,000
Ashman is a tall left-handed reliever with a really tricky delivery out of a high arm slot that makes his riding heater really hard to pick up. A good slider and an above average changeup round out a pretty strong arsenal though he doesn’t throw that hard yet. The six-foot-seven southpaw was moving really fast and striking out a ton of hitters at the High-A level when the Tigers dealt him to the Orioles for Charlie Morton. Ashman was a steal for the price, and we may eventually regret that trade for more than just the fact that Morton was terrible in Detroit.
12- SS Jude Warwick (Downers Grove HS) $247,500
Warwick is going to be really interesting to watch. The Tigers got a lot of value here as Warwick was motivated to pass on college and start his pro career. He spent half of 2025 on the injury list, and is only in his second season out of high school, so he just needs time to figure it out at the Single-A level. He has pretty good contact ability, good speed and plenty of defensive potential. What he currently lacks is batspeed, but this is another bet that a young contact hitter will eventually grow into something like average power and make himself a very versatile utility player, and just maybe, a future starting shortstop.
13- RHP Lucas Elissalt (Chipola College) $187,500
Elissalt was a JUCO pick out of Chipola with a long, lanky frame a la Troy Melton and big time extension to the plate. His low release point produces a good riding fastball with a tough angle to hitters. He backs that with a curveball and a changeup, and is developing a slider as well. Elissalt’s huge stride, lively arm, and long levers argue for plenty of velocity development, and his older brother showed a nice bump in velocity after some time in pro ball. If Elissalt can get to sitting 94-95 mph he’s got a very good chance of at least being a reliever. His curveball is a solid pitch, but developing a cutter would really benefit him as he’s not really the type to break off super high spin breaking stuff. Long-striders like this can take more time than other to develop their command but there’s a future mid-rotation starter in here if the Tigers can help him develop his repertoire and keep getting stronger.
14- RHP Preston Howey (St. Mary’s) $150,000
Howey is a decent relief prospect with a good pair of breaking balls. He’s shown some flashes of better velocity up in the 95-96 mph range, but is still a little too underpowered on a day-to-day basis to be much more than a lottery ticket until he breaks out consistently in that department. He’s been a little wilder at the High-A level this season and hitters have tagged the fastball more often as a result.
15- OF Zach MacDonald (Miami University) $150,000
The Tigers got quite a lot of value here as well, with a possible center fielder with 60 grade power and good speed. MacDonald has hit some tape measure shots for the Lakeland Flying Tigers, repeatedly topping 110 mph off the bat up to 114 mph, and has 14 homers and 23 stolen bases as a 22-year-old at the lowest full season level. The problem is that while he’ll take his obvious walks, he also swings and misses a ton and hasn’t made much progress handled better mixes of breaking and offspeed stuff. Still, for the price his tools are gigantic and while he’s almost 23 and needs to start figuring it out, he’s got enough talent to be patient with him, and his jump from college ball to the pro ranks was steeper in terms of competition than for some others.
16- RHP Anson Seibert (Blue Valley Southwest)
Seibert didn’t sign, attending Tennessee instead. At last report he’d stepped away from the program for unspecified reasons.
17- C Gabriel Rosado (Carlos Beltran Academy)
Rosado is a 20-year-old left-handed hitting catching prospect. He’s still at the Complex League level and while he shows some signs defensively, the bat doesn’t look like it’s going to work out.
18- RHP Bryce Alewine (Southern Union State JC)
Alewine was another JUCO pick, but hasn’t really shown much in the way of secondary stuff in the Complex League. He has a deep pitch mix, including a cutter, but he’s still 92-93 mph with his fourseamer. Now 21 years old, something is going to have to start popping real soon for him.
19- LHP Chase Davis (Leon HS)
This prep left-hander decided not to sign and is attending Georgia Southern.
20- RHP Dawson Price (Eastern Oklahoma State JC) $150,000
Price was another JUCO pick and is working in the Complex League for the Tigers. He’ll be 22 in September, but the six-foot-five right-hander has been out all season with an injury, so we’ll have to wait and see if he re-emerges, and what he looks like.
Bryce Rainer is carrying a ton of weight for this draft class
Obviously the scales of judgement hold fewer expectations when you’re not picking near the top of the draft, and when your compensation pick is the B round edition. There was no reason to expect this draft to match the 2023 version, and it probably won’t. On the other hand, Bryce Rainer has the potential to be one of the best players in baseball and is tracking pretty well overall. That alone helps carry this draft and with a lot of quality value plays included, made this a pretty solid haul overall.
The Tigers clearly realized they needed to lean into the pitching side, however, and on that front they didn’t do very well. Things may look different if Owen Hall and eventually, Ethan Schiefelbein, start making real progress, but the injuries, and the fact that they traded away several of the better arms from this class and didn’t get what they needed in return, certainly makes this a weak group overall at this point. Still, the trades have nothing to do with grading a draft class, and overall the Tigers once again did well here.
Strong and Elissalt are a long way away and both pretty high risk prospects, but they have plenty of potential. Keep an eye on Jude Warwick as well. Beyond that, augmenting Rainer is probably going to come down to injured pitchers like Schiefelbein, Massey, and Swanson eventually producing some value as a group.
In the end this was a solid draft class now shot full of holes by trades and injuries. It’s entirely possible, and I might argue likely, that Rainer redeems the whole package, but the weakness in upper level pitching in the system is directly related to a pitching heavy 2024 class that doesn’t look that likely to produce a ton of talent right now. Perhaps some of the younger, high slot bonus picks will eventually get beyond the injury trouble and change the equation, but until that happens the Tigers will be scrambling to produce enough homegrown pitching.
