With the 2026 MLB Draft set to begin Saturday at 1 PM on NBC/Peacock, the Tigers are back on the clock with four selections in Rounds 1, 2, Competitive Balance Round B, and 4. Detroit forfeited its third-round pick after signing Framber Valdez, who declined a qualifying offer from the Astros.
That draft arrives with the Tigers’ player-development machine already showing off. Kevin McGonigle is pushing for a Rookie of the Year award, and if he were a first-round pick, he’d be sitting at the top of this list with an A+. But since he wasn’t, the conversation turns to Detroit’s actual first-round haul over the last five years - a group that ranges from promising to puzzling to flat-out disappointing.
Jordan Yost was the Tigers’ 2025 first-rounder, taken 24th overall, and he’s still tough to pin down. Detroit went against the grain by making the shortstop its first pick, even though he fit the organization’s usual preference for athletic, up-the-middle prep bats.
In high school, he was a statistical oddity, striking out only once in 35 games during his senior year. Now at Single-A Lakeland after a promotion on April 21, he’s hitting .256 with a .733 OPS in 48 games.
The contact and plate discipline are real - 32 walks against 27 strikeouts says plenty - but the bigger picture is still hazy. For now, he lands at a C+, with the understanding that the grade could move quickly.
Bryce Rainer, the 11th overall pick in 2024, has already given the Tigers a much clearer reason for optimism. He opened his pro career by hitting .288 with an .831 OPS in his first 35 games before a dislocated shoulder in June ended his season and raised obvious questions about whether the injury would slow him down.
His start this year in Lakeland was rough, as he hit .167/.575, but Detroit bumped him to High-A in mid-April anyway, and the move has paid off. Rainer has been rolling ever since, hitting .352/1.140 in June and .360/1.069 in July.
On July 8, he went 5-for-5 with 10 total bases, six RBI, and a stolen base, and every one of those five hits came off the bat at 109 MPH or harder, a minor league record. That’s an A- season of development if there ever was one.
Max Clark, the third overall pick in 2023, has been one of the safest bets in the system from the moment Detroit drafted him. He has stayed among baseball’s top 15 prospects and entered this year as the Tigers’ No. 1 prospect, which was no surprise.
He opened the season in Triple-A, and while some fans have been clamoring for a big-league call since spring training, the Tigers have every reason to keep him there for now. He still needs more time to keep developing, and Detroit also wants him to remain PPI eligible in 2027.
Even so, his numbers have been solid: .268/.755 on the season and .346/1.007 through seven games in July. That’s enough to keep his grade at an A.
Jace Jung, taken 12th overall in 2022, is the one pick here that looks like a miss. He got a brief taste of the majors late in 2024 during the Tigers’ Gritty Tigs run, alongside Trey Sweeney, but neither player hit much in those first looks, and Jung still hasn’t stuck at the big-league level.
Across 51 games between 2024 and 2025, he hit .190/.546. He’s been back in the majors twice this season, appearing in three games and going 1-for-6, but that stay was never going to last long.
He still hasn’t hit his first major league homer. Cody Stavenhagen noted in June that he would like to see Jung get more of a fair shake at the major league level, but “ it feels like he's in the dog house for some reason.”
Based on what’s happened so far, that leaves Jung with a D.
Jackson Jobe, Detroit’s 2021 first-round pick at No. 3 overall, is the wild card. He’s working back from Tommy John and already touching 100+ MPH on his fastball in a Single-A rehab assignment, which is a frightening thought for the hitters facing him there.
Before the injury, he had a 4.22 ERA in his abbreviated rookie season, so the major league results were still a work in progress. But the Tigers drafted him as a potential ace, and that possibility is still very much alive.
The path back may be messy for a while, but the ceiling remains exactly where it was when Detroit took him.
In Other News...
Tigers Just Took Another Bullpen Flier Fans Will Want To Track
The Tigers added another arm to the bullpen mix by claiming right-hander Andre Granillo off waivers from the Nationals and sending him to Triple-A. It is the sort of low-risk move Detroit has made plenty of times as it keeps searching for usable pitching depth, and Granillo brings a little more intrigue than the usual waiver pickup because he has already reached the majors this season and now occupies a spot on the 40-man roster.
Granillo also arrives with some real pedigree, having once been considered a notable Cardinals prospect before St. Louis moved him to Washington earlier this year. The immediate assignment to Triple-A suggests the Tigers want to see more before giving him a longer look, but his track record and the fact that he has already opened this season in the big leagues make him one of those names worth following if Detroit needs another bullpen option later on. [Read more 🡒]
Tigers Are Rolling And This Phillies Win Changed The Feeling Fast
The Tigers wasted no time turning a tight game into a loud one Friday night at Comerica Park, burying the Phillies 10-2 in the opener of a three-game series. Detroits offense broke through in a big sixth inning, then kept stacking on runs in the seventh, with Eduardo Valencia, Zach McKinstry, James Outman, Colt Keith and Spencer Torkelson all part of the surge that changed the tone fast.
Jack Flaherty helped set the stage by giving Detroit six innings and allowing two runs, giving the club another steady start to lean on as the lineup came alive behind him. The bigger question now is whether this was just one of those nights where everything clicked, or another sign that the Tigers are starting to look a lot more dangerous when a game gets into the middle innings. [Read more 🡒]