Detroit Tigers draftee Max Clark earns national honors

Detroit Tigers draftee Max Clark wins national award.

The Detroit Tigers selected Max Clark with the third overall draft pick during the 2023 MLB Draft that had kicked off on Sunday. Clark was expected to be a top-five pick, and his week of complete chaos began with the Tigers calling his name three picks into the first round.

It seems that the two sides were able to work out a deal, and Clark will join the Detroit Tigers with a signing bonus that saves them some money to use elsewhere in their draft class, coming in a hair under-slot on the reported figures for his contract.

The prep talent from Franklin, Ind., has had a pretty crazy spring leading up to the draft and not just performance during the prep season, but just really preparing for this draft time and doing his thing off-the-field as a "baseball influencer," as the draft show called it.

But he's got his entire community backing him and has been able to share the honors of getting drafted with them. Taking it a step further, the draft was huge, but Clark was at the ESPYs on Wednesday night and found himself in the spotlight once again.

This time, Clark was taking home national honors, getting a big-time award. Alongside Ava Brown, undefeated softball pitcher, both were named Gatorade Players of the Year in their respective sports of baseball/softball.

Clark's incredible senior season with the Franklin High School team only helped him solidify the award. He managed a .646 average with nine doubles, five triples, and six home runs, driving in 42 runs in the process. He had an OPS of 2.023, striking out just five times the entire spring.

Certainly, the type of numbers that pop. After all, he was the third overall pick in the draft and was the 1:1 favorite in some mock drafts along the way. He was certainly deserving of the recognition, and he was on hand at the ESPYs to accept the award.

On top of that, he was on the red carpet, and here's a clip from that interaction, where he talks a little bit more about the insane week he has had.

Soon enough, Clark is likely going to be headed down to Lakeland, Fla., to get to work with the Tigers organization. The third overall draft pick needs to officially sign. Then he's going to be heading south down to the complex league to trade in his BBCOR bat for a wood one and get his feet wet with affiliated ball on the backfields and even possibly Single-A, depending on where Detroit stations him.

But, for now, Clark continues to stay in the news after being drafted and then getting one more tip of the cap for his senior campaign that he put together this spring.