Detroit Tigers 2025 MLB Draft Preview

As the 2025 MLB Draft quickly approaches, the Prospects Live team wants to make your life as easy as possible. In this series of articles, I'll be providing team-by-team analysis of their recent draft trends, their available draft capital for 2025, any areas of the draft they've heavily targeted, as well as a few names in this year's class that might fit into their historically preferred archetype.

This analysis isn't sourced for the upcoming year, nor is it a guarantee the organization won't pivot from what they've done in the past. Simply put, this article aims to provide an in-depth look at teams and their recent draft classes to try and decipher trends that could help uncover players your favorite team might be targeting. It's far from a perfect science, but I've done my job if it makes things easier to follow on draft day.

Pittsburgh Pirates

2025 Bonus Pool Value - $10,990,800 (17th)
Top 100 selections - 24, 34, 62, 98

The Detroit Tigers find themselves atop the division in the AL Central in the midst of a fantastic 2025 season, however are much closer to the middle of the pack when analyzing their available draft capital for the impending draft. They don’t have an elite pick after their improbable playoff run last season, but four top one hundred picks is nothing to sneeze at, either. They’ll have a great shot to supplement an already strong system with some intriguing young guns that lengthen this organizational depth chart.

2024 Draft Overview

The Tigers selected Bryce Rainer ($90,000 overslot) with the 11th overall pick of last year’s draft, naturally gravitating to his immense tools both in the field and at the plate. The young high school shortstop is off to a strong start to his pro career despite injury and should have every opportunity to succeed when he’s back healthy. They followed up with two prep pitchers with their next two picks, going with right-hander Owen Hall ($140,000 underslot) and lefty Ethan Schiefelbein ($710,000 overslot). Both have prototypical frames and carry plenty of projection in their slender frames. They found one more prep pitcher this draft with 9th rounder Zach Swanson ($530,000 overslot) and took a flyer on prepster Jude Warwick ($100,000 overslot) in the 12th, however outside of that, the rest of the way was all college. I liked the Michael Massey ($115,000 underslot) pick a whole lot.

2023 Draft Overview

This one was a doozy for the Tigers. In the loaded 2023 class, Detroit went with high school phenom Max Clark ($640,000 underslot) with the third overall pick, emphasizing the toolsy upside in Clark’s profile over established college performers with tremendous pedigree. With the savings from Clark’s underslot deal, they opted for a polished high school bat in Kevin McGonigle ($540,000 overslot), a move that has worked out wonderfully for them as he is now amongst the best prospects in all of baseball. They saved even more money with Nebraska infielder Max Anderson ($480,000 underslot) then fired yet again at the prep ranks, this time with Oregon lefty Paul Wilson ($755,000 overslot). Prep third baseman Carson Rucker ($145,000 overslot) followed and rounded out the major bonus allotments for the high schoolers, however they still managed to scoop up three more prepsters later in this class. Mix in fifth rounder Jaden Hamm ($45,000 underslot) and you’ve got yourself an utterly loaded class.

2022 Draft Overview

In a major deviation from their more recent drafts, the Tigers did not select a single high schooler in the 2022 draft. Opting for third baseman Jace Jung (slot) in the first and shortstop Peyton Graham ($290,000 overslot), Detroit preferred the college infield class at the top of this draft and chose to double dip into it. Following with pitcher Troy Melton (slot) in the fourth, Luke Gold (slot) in the fifth, and Danny Serretti in the sixth (slot), the Tigers very closely followed their given slot values in this draft, a stark difference when compared to their current draft philosophy. This class has underperformed to some degree and lacks a lot of the shine their more prep-heavy classes carry, so perhaps this class acted as a bit of a tipping point for their scouting division to instead dream on upside. Detroit is clearly comfortable taking the best player available on their board regardless of demographic, however the 2022 class feels a bit like a remnant of a previous philosophy. I don’t think they’re throwing the college ranks by the wayside entirely, but this class feels markedly different than their more recent classes.

Early Round Demographics

They’ve been heavy on the prep talent in recent years and are emphasizing tools over everything, however I think the 2022 class provides needed context that they aren’t averse to college talent. While I don’t think it’s their primary target at this point in time, I don’t think it’s 100% off the table. Regardless, I’d expect a bat in the first round, specifically one that can make a healthy amount of contact with some level of defensive utility. They’ve liked snagging upside arms in the early-middle rounds and aren’t afraid to drop a bag on them, but they haven’t taken an arm with their first pick since Jackson Jobe in 2021, a stark outlier in talent when compared to the players they’ll have available with the 24th pick in this year’s draft. I like the idea of securing their coveted prep with their first pick and continuing to delve into the deep prep demographic for the first handful of rounds even if it means they have to cut spending in the later rounds. It’s a strategy that’s served them well.

Late Round Demographics

The Tigers aren’t afraid to take some lower ranked prep talent in rounds 6-20 and are rather aggressive with it when compared to other organizations. Outside of the upside plays, I like what they’ve been able to do with up the middle players and they’ve had a few arms they’ve developed into legitimate talent. Their aggressiveness at the top of classes often causes the back half to understandably suffer, but if a few of their late round flyers are able to turn into true prospects with reasonable big league aspirations, you have to consider that an absolute win.

Names to Know

Steele Hall, High School SS - Do I expect Steele Hall to be available for the Tigers to select? No I do not. Would he be the perfect player for the Tigers? Absolutely. If he finds himself sliding on draft day, I’d expect Detroit to be ringing his line to see if they can’t work out a deal.

Xavier Neyens, High School 3B/SS - Neyens has tremendous raw power with premium athleticism, though his most likely position is at the hot corner and there are some questions with the hit tool after an up and down year. There’s enough track record here that I think Detroit would take a chance, perhaps going with a “safer” pick at 34.

Nick Becker, High School SS - Becker has a ton of projection, a solid feel to hit in the box, and average or better tools across the board. He might even save them a few bucks along the way.