Detroit Tigers 2024 MLB draft: Day 3 roundup of picks 11-20

On the final day of the draft, the Tigers continued on with the major developing themes of their 2024 class. They scoured the Earth for less well known pitching talent with plenty of projection remaining. There were more prep picks, there were more JUCO selections, and there was one big swing at a well known prep pitching prospect that will really difficult to sign.

They did finally take a catcher, and they managed to land another left-handed hitting prep shortstop with potential. Still, they clearly didn’t love the hitting talent in this draft. That was a fairly common assessment going in, but we didn’t necessarily expect them to go this hard in adding more and more arm talent.

By day’s end, they had selected 14 pitchers, including 4 left-handers. They drafted four shortstops, two outfielders, and one catcher. And their first undrafted free agent signing was another catcher. Their second was a 6’10”, 290 pound right-hander named Shay Timmer out of Salt Lake City JC, continuing the addition of a lot of tall, large-framed pitching prospects.

Many of the later round picks don’t have much information available on them, but we looked far and wide to collect as much intel as possible.

11th Rd – LHP Micah Ashman, Utah

A theme that developed on Day 3 of the draft was the Tigers taking some really tall pitchers with lots of projection. They kicked off the day by selecting 6’7”, 195 pound LHP Micah Ashman. The slender lefty has been a dedicated reliever in college and Utah’s closer this season but is raw and projectible enough that the Tigers could in theory try to develop him as a starter for a while.

Ashman is mostly in the low 90’s with a riding fourseamer, a crossfire delivery, and a somewhat high three-quarters slot path that hides the ball well. It fits into the invisiball category where hitters struggle to track it out of his hand. He backs that with a high 70’s breaking ball that he can throw as an effective 12-6 curveball or bend with two-plane break into a slider shape.

The breaking ball, or perhaps two breaking balls, blur together and the Tigers will put their pitching lab to work helping him optimize the best one to pair with the fastball. Right now neither is a pro caliber weapon, and Ashman relies heavily on his fastball, deception, and ability to move the ball around the zone with decent command, throwing a high ratio of strikes. They’ll also hope to fill him out with good muscle and get that fastball consistently into the mid-90’s. Based on his size that seems a solid bet to place.

Something to watch is the combination of riding fourseamer with a very tall pitcher with a high release point. That’s not a combination that works particularly well in terms of plane to the plate, so it will be interesting to see if the Tigers try to lower his arm slot or improve his stride to a lower point on the mound, or if they might actually try to convert him into more of sinker/slider type.

12th Rd – SS Jude Warwick, Downers Grove Northern HS (IL)

Another left-handed hitting shortstop? It’s a miracle. The Chicagoland prep standout was committed to Michigan State, but confirmed to Joshua Welge of Shaw Local News Network that he’s already decided to sign with the Tigers.

“A tough decision, but super thrilled and super excited,” Warwick said. “We were waiting for the call, there was the possibility of it coming late Monday and I was waiting around, talking to my advisor about possible options.”

“It was a very difficult decision for me, Plan A go to the Tigers or Plan B Michigan State. I talked to my family, decided it would be best for me to sign and I couldn’t be happier.”

Warwick also noted that the Tigers have been scouting him for almost a year now, and were the only team showing consistent interest.

“They were very big on my projectability,” Warwick said. “They knew I had a skill set, get their hands on me with their development team and get me bigger, faster and stronger.”

The slender 18-year-old checks in at 6’0”, 155 pounds per Perfect Game. He’s a smooth athlete with some speed and plenty of room to add muscle. He’ll have to in order to develop the bat speed required, but he’s fairly long-levered for his modest height and leverages good power for his size with a long stroke. Warwick has some natural loft in his swing, and hit for pretty good power in his senior year, notably cranking a walkoff homer to give Downers Grove its first sectional championship in 20 years back in May.

On the JKR podcast, Warwick discussed some of the work on his swing.

“My hitting coach, Myles Farley, has helped me out a bunch, and Sam Bumpers, they’ve been great to me. This year, I got big into more of a scapular load, really just loading up, coiling up, just, like, letting the hands work through the zone and just finish strong through the back so really creates a better weapon. Last year they really helped me with hip load, just coiling up and that hip releasing a lot of energy. They’ve been great to me, they just helped me out with my swing so much”

13th Rd – RHP Lucas Elissalt, Chipola College

19-year-old sophomore Lucas Elissalt comes out of long-time JUCO baseball standout, Chipola College. TIgers fans may remembered ill-fated slugger Rey Rivera as the last Chipola notable taken by the Tigers. Don’t take that as an omen, however. The right-hander has a lot to offer to a good pitching development program such as the Tigers have developed.

Elissalt tops out in the low 90’s, but he’s got really good ability to spin the baseball and posts 20 inches or more of induced vertical break consistently, which is excellent. He can spin a curveball at 78-80 with rpms over 2800, and mixes in a developing mid-80’s cutter and a low spin changeup as well.

Some observers note that he’s more consistently in the low 90’s now. The clips below are from early this season.

Pretty smooth delivery from Elissalt and slender enough at 6’2”, 195 pounds for the Tigers to believe they can build him up. The stuff is really interesting in terms of metrics, but needs more power and refinement to make him a viable major league pitching prospect. He has the actions of a starter and does have a decent four-pitch mix. We’ll have to wait and see what the role the Tigers envision for him, but there’s a good amount to work with for a later round selection.

14th Rd – RHP Preston Howey, St. Mary’s

Preston Howey is another probable relief prospect. He’s got an interesting low arm slot, sits low-to-mid 90’s and has topped at 97 mph in his college career. The 5’10”, 175 pound four-year reliever has a pretty sneaky motion and good athleticism on the mound. He seems bound for the bullpen as a pure relief project.

Howey backs the heater with a tight, low 80’s slider that has been effective for him. He appears to throw a decent amount of strikes, and was a solid reliever for St. Mary’s. He struck out 51 hitters in 38 innings, though a 4.26 ERA against lower tier college competition isn’t going to get anyone excited.

His short, compact delivery and quick, sneaky arm stroke shows some atypical traits and we’ll have to see if the Tigers are interested in building on that or if they that have it in mind to make significant adjustments.

15th Rd – OF Zach MacDonald, Miami (Ohio)

Center fielder Zach MacDonald is a Portage Central HS graduate. The Michigan native is a well rounded player without a major standout tool. He has the arm strength to play right field and while he it’s hard to get an exact read, presumably he’s a plus runner as Tigers’ scouting director Mark Connor told Evan Petzold of the Free Press that they’re confident he can stay in center field.

The right-handed hitter’s calling card was power and speed, but he put a lot of weight on working on his pitch recognition and swing by instituting a leg kick going into his junior year. He went on to hit 20 homers and slug .711 for the Redhawks, earning All-MAC first team honors.

“The main thing for me, from last year to this year, has been improving my timing and my pitch recognition,” explained MacDonald. “I believe those are the two most important things in hitting. I implemented a little bit of a leg lift in the batter’s box, just so I could start sooner to be slow and early. That’s helped me see the ball better and react to whatever pitch is thrown.”

16th Rd – RHP Anson Seibert, Blue Valley Southwest HS (KS)

Ok, this one actually was a surprise, because the towering 18-year-old right-hander is a well known quantity compared to most selected at this level. He was considered a possible 2024 first rounder last summer, but results have been mixed since then and an April flexor strain didn’t help matters either. Still, he was widely expected to be selected early on Monday.

The 6’8” 235 pounder has huge extension to the plate and generates a lot of ride on his 92-94 mph fastball. He’s hit 98 mph in game and reportedly up to 99 mph in some bullpen sessions, and has plenty of room to add strength and sustain his top velocity band. Seibert back that up with a solid slider and a changeup that remains unconvincing. Still, for a prep starter this is big-time stuff and projectability. There is enormous potential to unlock here, and we’d be thrilled if the Tigers can find a way to lock him up.

Still, the Tennessee commit was heavily scouted, and the talent is as outsized as he is, so it’s hard to imagine how the Tigers are going to have the money to sign him at this point. It’s possible they took him as something of a fallback plan in case one of their top prep selections proves a difficult sign. He was certainly the best player available there. It’s also possible that a flexor strain in April scared teams away and maybe he just wants to play pro ball. Here’s hoping.

17th Rd – C Gabriel Rosado, Carlos Beltran Baseball Academy (PR)

This lanky 18-year-old catcher out of Ponce, Puerto Rico is the first backstop taken by the Tigers in this draft. He’s got the athleticism to develop into a good catcher. Rosado has good arm strength already for his age and has posted some outstanding pop times as well according to Perfect Game, which has him at 1.88 already at his best. He’s also played center field and has some speed as well, but is also lauded for his work ethic and leadership ability, giving off strong catcher vibes as well as skills. The left-handed hitter has a smooth swing with some power potential as he fills out his current 6’1”, 165 pound frame. He’s committed to San Jacinto CC.

From Perfect Game

“At the plate, he keeps it simple with lower half as hands stay active with a slight waggle. Hands work short and direct to the baseball with some quality extension through and with flashes of some bat speed through impact.”

18th Rd – RHP Bryce Alewine, Southern Union CC

Another big, young junior college standout came off the board to the Tigers here as they continue to scour more out of the way players with upside to develop. The 19-year-old stands 6’4”, 215 pounds, hailing from East Coweta HS in Georgia. He feels like another case of the Tigers hunting raw potential in a big-bodied teenaged pitcher who hasn’t tapped into his potential yet. There just isn’t much in the way of details available on him.

19th Rd – LHP Chase Davis, Leon HS (FL)

The 17-year-old Davis is one of youngest players in the class. Last summer he was sitting around 89-91 mph with a bit more in the tank, but one source indicates he’s low-90’s more consistently now. He also wields a solid slider and shows feel for spinning it along with pretty solid feel for a changeup already.

The 6’2” left-hander is committed to South Alabama and posted a 2.33 ERA with 25 strikeouts across 18 innings of work. He was a two-way player but will be developed as a pitcher solely. He doesn’t have the projectability that most of the other Tigers prep picks possess in terms of adding muscle to his frame, but there is room for growth in his overall athleticism.

20th Rd – RHP Dawson Price, Eastern Oklahoma State JC

Another large right-hander fills out the Tigers draft haul in the final round. Price is another JUCO was went undrafted last year and pitched and played outfield this year. The Tigers want him as a pitcher only, and the 6’5”, 215 pound right-hander has the size to develop a really potent fastball and already touches 95 mph. There isn’t a whole lot else to go on.

UDFA – C Hunter Dobbins, Ball State

UDFA – RHP Shay Timmer, Salt Lake Community College