Tigers say Saturday's draft twist, featuring college pitchers and a pair of shortstops, was all a matter of 'how the draft board fell'

Few expected 6-6 right-hander Cameron Flukey to be around at pick No. 22. The Tigers might have gotten during the MLB Draft's first four rounds another gift or two, including a prep shortstop.

The Tigers drafted a pitcher Saturday who, five months ago, was considered in some corners to be the best college pitcher in the land. (Photo by goccusports.com)

They got a pitcher, Cameron Flukey, at No. 22-overall in Saturday’s first four rounds of the MLB Draft, and were thrilled, given that he was expected to go at least a half-dozen slots earlier.

They added a shortstop, Tyson LeBlanc, from the University of Kansas who set a Jayhawks record this spring with 25 homers in 63 games.

Eight picks later, at No. 69, the Tigers turned Saturday to a pitcher, Evan Dempsey, whose coaches at Florida Gulf Coast couldn’t seem to decide whether he was an outfielder or a starting pitcher, all because he was so good at both skills.

The Tigers finished off Saturday’s draft haul with a shortstop ignored until the fourth round: Dominic Pellegrin, 19, a dazzler with the glove and an impressive teen with the bat who was on his way to Tulane until the Tigers scooped him up Saturday with the Draft’s 125th-overall turn.

“A positive outcome for us,” said Rob Metzler, the Tigers vice-president and assistant general manager who oversees Tigers drafts. “As an organization, you never know how the draft plays out, which is what makes today so exciting. It makes it such fun. We couldn’t be more excited.”

Or, in other words: The Tigers didn’t expect the 6-foot-6 Flukey to be there at 22. They might not have known, either, if LeBlanc or Dempsey would be around, not that there wouldn’t have been other happy options available at No. 61 and No. 69.

And while they weren’t going to get into particulars Saturday evening as the day’s business was discussed, it’s a reasonable bet they were delighted that Pellegrin was free when he might show that fourth round was a level or two low.

“It was just a reflection of how the draft fell,” said Metzler, who along with Mark Conner, the Tigers director of amateur scouting, and the usual legion of scouts and Tigers personnel, survived Day One of this year’s MLB Draft and its transition from the previous Sunday evening-Monday format to a Saturday-Sunday afternoon doubleheader that ends Sunday with rounds 5-20.

“You never know. We line up our board to the best of our abilty. You never know how that board plays out.

“It might look different from last year. I wouldn’t take anything from that in terms of how (Saturday) played out.”

Metzler and Conner were firm Saturday evening as they offered their overview: Don’t make too much of the fact the Tigers did a bit of a reverse from their preceding three drafts when up-the-middle prep athletes and left-hand hitters (Max Clark, Kevin McGonigle, Bryce Rainer, Jordan Yost) had been the early favorites since front-office general Scott Harris took command.

Still …

Three of Saturday’s chosen four were college players. The two shortstops taken were right-hand hitters.

Metzler and Conner shook heads and insisted there was nothing special Saturday in making a pair of college pitchers two of the Tigers’ first three picks — even if Tigers farm pitching is thin due to an outlandish number of injuries.

Flukey’s availability at No. 22? The Tigers might have jumped there had the farm been flush with Cy Young arms.

Flukey began 2026 as a man considered by some appraisers as the best college pitcher in America. Only because he had a rib injury that cost him nine weeks did his stock perhaps slip. But by the time he got back in May, he was back to being Flukey. Tigers scouts’ glowing notes and reports were simply updated.

“A highly talented pitcher with a really good fastball, and an ability to spin,” Conner said of a pitcher who in April turned 21 and who in 24 innings for Coastal Carolina walked nine while striking out 31, with a four-seamer that can reach 99.

“He throws a ton of strikes with the ability to get both sides of the plate, up and down, and ability to spin the ball with a curveball and slider, and the makings of a good change-up in there. There’s a full starter package in there.

“Our staff has seen him for a couple of years,” Conner continued. “We saw him before the injury, and like every other organization we had to go through a waiting game. But we had a lot of looks at him.”

LeBlanc, the home-run-hitting Jayhawk shortstop who in May turned 21, was the Tigers’ next choice. LeBlanc is 6-foot, 195 pounds, and this spring batted .341/.425/.706, with 38 walks and 50 strikeouts in 306 plate-appearances, a package spiced by those 25 bombs.

“The one thing about Tyson,” Conner said, “is he’s an all-around good player, not just a power guy. And, honestly, I think the thing we’re most excited about is the player, the makeup, how he’s wired.

“He’s an ultra-competitive kid with a really good mind for the game.”

Toss in the hit tool, the power, and his defense that the Tigers — for now — believe is good enough to keep him at shortstop, Conner said, and the Tigers got it right at No. 61.

They had the same thought in taking Dempsey eight picks after LeBlanc. And for much the same reason: all-around athleticism.

Dempsey’s coaches at Florida Gulf Coast had decided he was too good to pitch, only. He needed to play outfield, swinging a left-hand bat that, in 58 games, delivered: .335/.413/.538/.951, with 10 homers.

On the mound, it was much the same for a man 6-2, 205, who doesn’t turn 21 until later this month: 15 games, 88.2 innings, 68 hits, 26 walks — and a stunning 126 strikeouts.

“One of the things we’re really trying to do is add really good athletes to this organization,” Conner said. “It’s a cornerstone of our philosophy. Here’s a two-way player who has competed on both sides of the ball. Dempsey was a really good hitter in college. The fire he has, on both sides of the ball. When he focuses that fire (on pitching), we’re super-excited about him.”

Amen, said Metzler: “We like his fastball (it can hit mid-90s), his ability to spin the baseball (3,000 rpms) and his potential to develop the next pitch.”

Pellegrin might have qualified as Saturday’s deeper-round surprise.

Some national evaluators had ranked Pellegrin as the third-best player in Louisiana. And yet a radiant defensive shortstop, 6-1, 175, who last month turned 19, and who had been seen by Baseball America as one of the draft’s best “sleeper prospects,” was unclaimed until the Tigers jumped at No. 125.

His work this spring during 12 games at the MLB Draft League — a multi-state competition filled with prospects who tend to be in their early 20s — was an audition the Tigers loved: 40 at-bats, 15 hits, including four doubles, a triple, 13 walks, and 13 strikeouts.

“I think the thing about Pellegrin is an example of our area scouts doing a great job of identifying a player who wasn’t on the circuit,” Conner said. “Mike Smith, our area scout — we tracked him throughout the system and were able to get around him a couple of times.

“Then, the Draft League where we were able to see him in a more competitive environment. He’s a very athletic kid, wired really well.

“He has really good hands at shortstop and has shown an ability to put the bat on the ball.”

One experience all four players drafted Saturday shared:

The Tigers worked out each of their four picks.

“We love workouts,” Metzler said, with a grin. “We’re very comprehensive.”

The Tigers intend to be equally comprehensive during 16 final draft rounds Sunday.

And afterward, as no doubt will be explained by the Tigers draft commanders, there will have been no ulterior motives or strategies involved in those later picks.

It’s all a matter of how a thousand-plus players are seated on that carefully constructed, labor-intensive, arbiter known as the Tigers draft board.

lhenning@tigersintelligencereport.com