Grading the last 5 Tigers' first-round draft picks

The 2026 MLB Draft kicks off on Saturday at 1 PM on NBC/Peacock, and the Tigers have four picks to make through Rounds 1, 2, Competitive Balance Round B, and 4 (they forfeited their third-round pick when they signed Framber Valdez, who turned down a qualifying offer from the Astros).

The fruits of the Tigers' draft strategy and player development have been on full display this season, with Kevin McGonigle gunning for a Rookie of the Year award. Detroit hasn't seen a player in him in a very, very long time and, were he a first-round pick, he'd get an A+ on this list.

However, the Tigers' actual first-round picks of the last five years run a gamut. Here's how Detroit has done.

2025: Jordan Yost, SS, 24th Overall. Grade: C+ (but still impossible to tell)

The Tigers selecting Yost in the first round was a head-scratcher, still is, and will probably continue to be until he gets to the upper levels of the minors. He was a bit of a statistical wonder in high school, when he struck out all of one time in 35 games in his senior year, and Detroit loves their athletic, up-the-middle prep bats, so he fit into their usual type, but they broke from all conventional wisdom by making him their first overall pick.

He was just promoted to Single-A Lakeland on April 21 and is hitting .256 with a .733 OPS in 48 games. Again, the advanced plate discipline and contact are certainly there — he has 32 walks to 27 strikeouts — but it still hard to tell exactly what the Tigers love about this kid. This grade can and almost certainly will go up, but it feels fair to give him a perfectly average one while we wait to see.

2024: Bryce Rainer, SS, 11th Overall. Grade: A-

Rainer was off to a great start in Single-A last year, hitting .288 with a .831 OPS through his first 35 professional games, but he dislocated his shoulder in June and underwent season-ending surgery. He returned at the beginning of this year, but there was lingering fear. What if such a major injury stunted his development before it could really even begin?

Things were looking a little dicey at the very beginning of the season (.167/.575 in Lakeland), but the Tigers promoted him to High-A in mid-April anyway ... and he's been explosive ever since. He hit .352/1.140 in June and is hitting .360/1.069 in July. On July 8, he went 5-for-5 with 10 total bases, six RBI, and a stolen base. All five of his hits had an exit velocity of 109 MPH or more, a minor league record.

Safe to say Rainer bounced back from that injury well.

2023: Max Clark, OF, 3rd Overall. Grade: A

Clark has remained a top-15 prospect in baseball since the Tigers drafted him third overall in 2023. He comes in at No. 1 for Detroit this year — no shocker there — and was promoted to Triple-A at the beginning of the season.

Though some Tigers fans have yet to stop calling for Clark's promotion to the majors since spring training, Detroit is right to wait on this one. Their current center field situation isn't ideal, but Clark isn't Kevin McGonigle. He still needs to spend some time in Triple-A to keep maturing as a player, and the Tigers definitely want him to be PPI eligible in 2027.

Still, Clark's steady rise through the minors and some solid numbers so far in Triple-A — .268/.755 on the season and .346/1.007 through seven games in July — make it clear that the Tigers have a real talent on their hands, so Clark still gets an A.

2022: Jace Jung, 2B, 12th Overall. Grade: D

Jung is the only player on this list we're pretty confident in calling a straight-up bust. It was exciting when he first came up at the tail end of the 2024 season with fellow former top prospect Trey Sweeney, in the middle of the Gritty Tigs' miracle run, but neither of them actually hit very well in their debut stints, and neither have managed to stick at the major league level since.

Between 51 games in 2024 and 2025, Jung hit .190/.546. He's poked his head back up into the majors twice this season and has played in three games, but he went 1-for-6 and was never going to last long. He has yet to hit his first major league homer.

Tigers insider Cody Stavenhagen noted in June that he would like to see Jung get more of a fair shake at the major league level, but "it feels like he's in the dog house for some reason." That's ... interesting, and maybe something to keep an eye on, but purely going off of what we've seen so far, he gets a failing grade.

2021: Jackson Jobe, RHP, 3rd Overall. Grade: B+

This grade will almost certainly change when Jobe gets back from Tommy John, given that he's already hitting 100+ MPH on his fastball in his rehab assignment in Single-A (those poor 18-year-olds) but, as with any major surgery, we still have to tread some caution.

Jobe hadn't quite found his stride in the majors by the time he got hurt; he had a 4.22 ERA in his abbreviated rookie season. Still, neither that nor his injury totally bars him from living up to his potential as baseball's former No. 1 pitching prospect (if you don't count Roki Sasaki, which we definitely don't).

There's still every chance that Jobe becomes the ace the Tigers expect him to be, even if his journey back to complete dominance looks a little wonky for a little while.

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