Breaking News: Tigers sign best pure hitter ahead of MLB deadline

The Detroit Tigers were busy on Monday, signing four of their 2024 MLB Draft class. According to MLB Pipeline, the Detroit Tigers acquired their first-round pick, Bryce Rainer, and three additional picks from the first five rounds in a flurry of transactions on Monday.

Rainer’s is the most important since it determines how much money the Tigers will have remaining in their draft pick bonus pool, which is $11.921 million.

The University of Texas recruit inked an above-the-slot contract with the Tigers worth $5.8 million. The bonus slot for his pick, which was No. 11, was $5.71 million Bonus deals.

According to MLB Pipeline, Rainer may be the best pure hitter in the class and intends to stay at shortstop. The report also stated that parallels to two-time World Series MVP Corey Seager were “inevitable.”

Left-handed hitting Rainer is a prep prospect who attended Harvard-Westlake High School in California. MLB.com rated him as the No. 10 overall prospect.

The Tigers were busy signing two other prospects, and those deals were indicative of Detroit’s desire to get some players on under-slot deals so they could add money to Rainer’s contract.

Second-round pick. Owen Hall, a high school pitcher, signed a $1.75 million contract, which was around $143,000 less than the slot value for his No. 49 overall pick. The slot’s value was $1.893 million.

Hall was a Vanderbilt recruit, which has produced previous top prospects such as Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker. However, by signing the contract, the Edmond, Oklahoma, product will forego college for the professionals.

Hall starred at Edmond North High School, located just outside of Oklahoma City. MLB reported that his fastball already reaches 97 mph, and he also has a slider and a change-up that can reach the mid- to low-80s. Scouting assessments indicate that control of his secondary pitches will be critical to his development.

Third-round pick. Josh Randall, another University of San Diego pitcher, agreed to an under-the-slot deal. Randall’s No. 85 pick was for $892,600, but he signed a deal for $700,000. He has a fastball that can reach 80 mph and a slider that can drop to the low 80s.

The fourth-round pick Michael Massey, a college pitcher, also signed his contract for $522,500, which was significantly less than the $637,200 slot value for the No. 114 pick. The former Wake Forest star had a nice season as a starter last year, but he may return to relief after being the Demon Deacons’ top reliever in 2023.

The Tigers have three other picks under contract: Notre Dame shortstop Jack Penney, who was drafted in the fifth round and signed a deal worth $65,000 less than the slot; UC Irvine shortstop Woody Hadeen, who was drafted in the sixth round and signed a deal worth $300,000 less than the slot; and Regis pitcher Ethan Sloan, who was drafted in the eight round.

Detroit has until 5 p.m. eastern on August 1, two days after the MLB trade deadline, to sign all of its draft picks.

 

 

The Tigers’ full list of 2024 MLB Draft picks is below.

2024 Detroit Tigers MLB Draft Picks