Detroit Tigers 2022 MLB Draft Recap: Rounds 8-15

The Detroit Tigers added arms in the middle of their draft.

The Detroit Tigers spent much of the early part of their draft stocking up on college infielders. They went that route with four of their first five picks, and even their sixth pick, outfielder Seth Stephenson, has a chance to play some infield.

But as day two ended and day three began, the club started adding to its pitching depth. Many of these arms were a bit off the radar, so rather than do an individual piece for each draft pick, we’re going to lump them all together here.

Detroit Tigers 2022 MLB Draft, 8th Round – Jake Miller, LHP, Valparaiso

A New York native, Jake Miller went to school in New Jersey and then spent three seasons at Valparaiso University in Indiana. He sat out his freshman year in 2020, worked exclusively out of the bullpen in 2021, and then moved to the rotation this year, where he posted a 5.58 ERA over 61.1 innings. He threw plenty of strikes (75K, 17BB), but gave up 71 hits and 10 home runs. He impressed in the Coastal Plain League earlier this summer, posting a 2.66 ERA with 22 strikeouts and 8 walks in 20.1 innings.

Detroit Tigers 2022 MLB Draft, 9th Round – Andrew Jenkins, 1B, Georgia Tech

Detroit’s 9th round pick was a bit of an outlier, as he’s a position player and he had a readily available scouting report on MLB Pipeline, where he was ranked the 174th player in the class:

"Built along the lines of Andrew Vaughn, Jenkins has a compact right-handed swing with plenty of bat speed and strength. He gets to most of his plus raw power, generating high exit velocities and driving the ball with authority to all fields. He rarely walks and is vulnerable to sliders, so there is some concern as to how his approach will play at the next level."

Jenkins was highly productive in college, batting over .300 with power in each of his two full seasons with the Yellow Jackets, but he really took off this year, batting .381/.440/.679 with 22 doubles and 17 home runs. As the scouting report above suggests, strikeouts figure to be a problem in pro ball, so he may be something of a project for the Tigers’ development staff. The club thinks he may be athletic enough to handle outfield corners, which would put slightly less pressure on him to perform at the plate.