With the 85th pick in the 2024 MLB draft, the Detroit Tigers have selected right-handed pitcher Josh Randall.
As a converted catcher who started pitching full-time in college at Arizona, Randall transferred to San Diego for his junior season and found significantly more success on the mound there. He was announced as a starting pitcher and has the build to carry a full workload of innings one day. At 6-foot-4 and already carrying 240 pounds, there is no physical projection left for Randall — he’s already as physical as it gets.
The primary pitch for Randall is a heavy slider that he throws with substantial velocity. Sitting in the mid-90s, he has been known to get up to 98 miles per hour, generating that velocity from a low, unusual arm slot. Baseball America also reports that he uses a more standard fastball up in the zone to keep hitters from sitting on his preferred offering, and the Tigers may ask him to make that a larger part of the pitch diet going forward.
Randall’s most used secondary is a slider that gets praise as a potentially above-average pitch. It’s a mid-80s breaker with traditional east-west movement and he has shown an impressive feel for it as someone so new to the mound. It’s not projected to develop too much, but it should serve as a capable out pitch as he transitions to pro ball and the Tigers have the know-how to improve a pitcher’s raw stuff.
His high heat and slider combination was too much for West Coast Conference hitters to handle. He struck out 85 hitters in 72.1 innings pitched, and although Randall wasn’t always the most efficient, his walk and home run numbers are perfectly adequate as well. He could likely play in the low minors tomorrow and meet with decent success.
There is a measure of reliever risk with Randall because of his limited arsenal and his control-over-command style of pitching. Baseball America and MLB Pipeline agree that his changeup lags well behind the other two pitches, which is not unexpected for a recently converted arm. Despite being a college athlete, the Tigers are unlikely to be aggressive with Randall as they work to refine his overall game instead of merely pushing him until he fails.
This pick will be graded as a massive reach when compared to public draft boards, as it was likely a cost-saving measure by the Tigers. Don’t make the mistake of writing off Randall as just a throwaway, though. With so little time on the mound in his resumé, the Tigers will hope to help him reach a new level of performance by tuning him up to a degree that simply hasn’t been possible in three years as a competitive pitcher. There’s nothing to lose by trying him out in the rotation, but even if he can’t hack it with a future #4 starter look, there’s still a path to the bigs for him as a two-pitch, power-armed middle reliever.
The Tigers’ next pick will be 114th overall.