The well-regarded SS prospect would be great value with the 24th pick.
With the MLB Draft just over a week away, mock draft season is full go. The latest to take a swing at predicting each team’s picks is MLB.com. Here , they ran through the traditional first round and the supplemental first round to make 43 total selections. That includes two for the Detroit Tigers , who pick 24th and 34th overall this year.
MLB projects the Tigers to take high school shortstop Kayson Cunningham with their first pick. We covered him briefly in a previous article, but this is a great player to have available this late in the draft. He’s consistently rated in the top 15 on draft lists with much of his value coming from an arguably best-in-class hit tool. The lefty has slightly below average power currently with a little room to add strength. More importantly, Cunningham is considered a lock to stay up the middle at either shortstop or second base depending on much he slows down in his 20s.
Naturally, there are some risks attached here. Firstly, his premium hit tool can be undermined by a tendency to chase against pitchers who can’t throw the ball past him. He hasn’t been tested enough by high school pitching to be burned by this yet, but expanding the zone in pro ball will lead to a lot of weak contact. Additionally, he is already 19 years old, making him one of the oldest high schoolers available. That usually negatively impacts how data-driven scouting models rate players and might explain why he’s projected to slide a little on draft day. Regardless, Cunningham is a very talented hitter and a Harris-style pick, for sure. Cunningham is committed to the University of Tennessee, but it isn’t expected to be a roadblock for a first-round pick.
The staff also mentions a few other names that might be of interest to Detroit, all high schoolers. Slater de Brun is the lefty centerfielder we covered earlier. Sean Gamble is either a second baseman or a center fielder with well-rounded tools across the board. Josh Hammond is a power-armed third baseman who recently converted from full time pitching; there’s big power and the potential for hit tool improvement as he hones his focus. Finally, there’s Xavier Neyens, a pretty typical power-first third baseman with hit tool risk but a good eye. All four are premium high school talents whose ordinal rankings depend on your personal favorite flavor of prospect.
If predicting the 24th overall pick wasn’t volatile enough, MLB also takes a stab at the Tigers’ plan with the 34th pick. Here, they mention yet another high schooler with Jaden Fauske. Fauske is a lefty outfielder from Illinois who quit catching to focus on slugging. It’s a balanced offensive game with good swing decisions, solid bat control, and plus raw power in his 6’3’, 200lbs frame. Some scouts wonder if he’s fast enough to try center field, which would make him a very exciting prospect, but realistically he projects to the corner outfield. If Fauske hits as projected, that won’t hurt his prospects whatsoever.
We’re still over a week out from the draft next Sunday, so everything is very fluid. Things are starting to take shape a little bit, though. To nobody’s surprise, Scott Harris and the Tigers are primarily connected to high school athletes they can work with early and mold into high-upside starters. It’s a draft philosophy that’s worked for them and seems likely to work again.