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 Make A Surprising Outfield Move Fans Didnt See Coming
Detroit kept its outfield shuffle going by moving on from Trei Cruz and opening a roster spot for Brett Callahan, a prospect who has climbed quickly enough to force his way into the conversation. Cruz had a brief big league look in June and went hitless in five at-bats, a small sample, but one that left him without much runway as the Tigers continued sorting through options.
Callahans rise gives the club a new name to watch, especially for a player who was a 13th-round pick in 2023 and only reached Triple-A Toledo in June. This will be his first major league roster appearance, and while the Tigers are clearly betting on the upside, the move also leaves open the question of how quickly he can turn that opportunity into something lasting. [Read more 🡒]
Tigers Return For Casey Mize May Already Offer Bullpen Help
The Tigers return for Casey Mize may not look like immediate major league help on paper, but it already has a path to the big club. Detroit added left-handers Kash Mayfield and Jackson Wolf in the deal, and while Mayfield remains a promising 2024 first-round pick who has yet to debut for the Tigers, the more practical short-term name is Wolf. He has now surfaced in Triple-A Toledo, giving the organization another arm to track as it sorts through pitching depth.
Wolf is not expected to jump straight into a major league rotation spot, but his fit could come in a different role if Detroit needs it. For a club that is always weighing innings, durability and bullpen flexibility, that kind of option matters even before the headline pieces of the trade are fully sorted out. Mayfield brings the higher ceiling, but Wolf may be the one who can help sooner, and the Tigers will keep watching how that assignment develops. [Read more 🡒]
Tigers Just Made Scott Harris Biggest Gamble Yet
The Tigers made their boldest move under Scott Harris by sending Tarik Skubal to the Los Angeles Dodgers for a package built around two top-100 prospects and another young pitcher drafted in the third round in 2023. It was the kind of deal that instantly shifts the conversation around a front office, because it says the organization is willing to trade away a frontline arm for a longer runway of talent even while the club still has a path to the postseason.
Not everyone around the game saw it that way. Harris has clearly chosen long-term value over the comfort of pressing for an immediate push, and some evaluators around baseball questioned whether that is the right call for a team still in the chase. The move leaves Detroit with more upside in the system, but it also puts a premium on whether the prospects can justify giving up one of the sport's most impactful pitchers. [Read more 🡒]