Everyone loves the MLB Draft, right? It’s April, which means it’s time to cover the second edition of Baseball America’s Mock Draft season! Yes, it’s irresponsibly early, and yes, here I am anyways.
As a reminder, the MLB Draft is scheduled for July 11th and 12th. It recently got moved to the All Star Break to create a week of hype baseball events with the All Star Game and the Home Run Derby. Most of what I’ve heard is teams are frustrated it overlaps with Trade Deadline preparation so much, but as a fan, it’s a move I’ve generally enjoyed. The current CBA also added a lottery system for the teams that don’t make the playoffs to held discourage tanking. The Detroit Tigers did back into a Wild Card spot last summer, so they pick 22nd based on their 2025 record. With the 22nd pick comes a $4,082,700 slot value and a $9,165,100 overall bonus pool. They can choose to distribute that $9.1M as unevenly as they like throughout the entire draft.
OK, time for the actual selection. Stop me if this sounds familiar, but Baseball America projects the Tigers to take a high school shortstop, Aiden Ruiz, with their 1st round pick. Ruiz is a switch hitting shortstop from Stony Brook High School in New York who gets praise for a top tier glove at shortstop, plenty of speed, and a solid foundation for a hit tool. You’ll notice I didn’t mention power.
The main drawback with Ruiz is he’s considered a mostly maxed out athlete at 5’10”, 170 pounds, so scouts aren’t sure he’ll be able to add much more muscle. Pairing this with his age – he’ll be an old-for-the-class 19 on draft day – makes it hard to project him for much power growth from his current 30 or 35 grade raw power. In another article, BA writes he “[has] the bat speed to show occasional sneaky pop for his size”, which may be damning with faint praise.
As a reminder, Kevin McGonigle came out of the draft with a 45 raw power grade most places, a whole standard deviation above where Ruiz is reportedly at. I’m not saying that can’t change for Ruiz, just that he has a lot of room before he reaches where McGonigle started from, let alone the 55-60 raw he’s at currently. Instead, Ruiz compares most similarly to 2025 pick Jordan Yost. In most respects Ruiz and Yost compare well, as both are gifted young defenders with excellent contact ability and draft-day raw power grades at 30 or 35 FV, depending on which site’s grades you choose. We’ve already seen Yost flash much better raw power than that this spring than he was forecast to on draft day, though not to the same degree McGonigle and 2024 first round prep shortstop Bryce Rainer have. The difference with Yost is that he had room on his lanky six-foot frame for considerably more muscle. So we’ll see how Ruiz develops, but if the Tigers do decide to take him, there is some reason to trust that they have a better line on Ruiz’s projections than the national scouting sites do.
There are a handful of other traits that fit with Detroit’s typical interest besides his present day toolkit. For starters, Ruiz is an accomplished international player, having served as the starting shortstop for Team USA’s U18 National Team. With them in 2025, he flashed the top-rated glove and helped lead the team to a gold medal over Japan. Here’s a clip of the most impactful webgem he made on the national stage:
As a reminder, McGonigle and Max Clark were teammates on a medal-winning Team USA back in 2022. Much like college draft picks who succeed in a wood bat summer league can see their draft stock soar, prep players excelling on the international amateur level have a little more certainty in how their tools will translate against upper level competition. That’s especially important for Ruiz, who hails from Long Island, NY, not a typical baseball hotbed. That hasn’t scared Detroit off in recent drafts, as all of Clark (IN), McGonigle (PA), and Michael Oliveto (NY) come from cold-weather states. It could be that Detroit is intentionally emphasizing these under-scouted regions to reduce competition, or maybe it’s just a coincidence.
Detroit has had a lot of success with picks like this under Scott Harris. The emphasis on up-the-middle defense and contact ability creates an excellent foundation of athletes with advanced hitting ability, and Ruiz’ hit tool fits right in with Clark, McGonigle, and Yost in that regard. The power certainly isn’t there yet, and might never be, but players available at pick 22 will almost always have a major flaw. All three of those added functional strength and bat speed since entering the Tigers’ system despite major concerns about their room to grow from their draft day measurables, so it’s possible Detroit could squeeze more out of Ruiz than scouts currently expect. From here, he’s as good of a fit as any could be, particularly if he’s willing to accept an underslot deal to help the Tigers get the most from a more limited bonus pool this summer.
There’s also no real concern about having too many shorstops or filling positions of need via the draft. Getting two premium shortstop defenders means that if everything breaks right, you get a major league SS and a major league 2B, 3B, or CF. Defenders like Yost and Ruiz can likely play anywhere on the infield, and we’ve already seen McGonigle look perfectly adequate at both SS and 3B in the majors. Draft athletes that can hit, and if they hit, and hit for some power, play them where it makes sense. That’s a perfectly sound draft strategy.
Of course, any mock draft in April should be taken with a pile of salt. There’s no actual connection, just speculation based on historical trends and rough talent estimations. Yes, Ruiz fits what the front office likes right now, but that’s exactly why Baseball America slotted him to us. Lots will change between now and July as breakouts and injuries shift players up and down draft boards. That being said, Detroit hasn’t been scared to ‘get their guy’ when they identify someone they want, and Ruiz certainly checks all the boxes for now.
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