It took a while, but on Friday the Detroit Tigers wrapped up their 2026 MLB draft class by signing second round pick Tyson LeBlanc to a slightly overslot deal worth $1,608.955. The Kansas Jayhawks shortstop waited until closer to the July 27 signing cut-off, presumably to let the Tigers work on three prep players they ultimately couldn’t convince to sign. As a result, they presumably just gave LeBlanc everything they had left in their bonus pool, going a little over the recommended $1,523,600 slot bonus.
In the process, three late round prep pitchers the Tigers drafted decided to honor their college commitments. RHP Dustin Dunwoody, the Tigers 15th round pick, RHP Jack Byers, their 17th rounder, and 20th rounder RHP Will Zielinski, all declined to sign a pro contract.
That’s not surprising, as the Tigers were really hamstrung by a small bonus pool and a second round competitive balance pick this year. It’s also just getting tougher to sign prep players who aren’t dead set on starting their pro career without regard to their signing bonus. Bigger college programs can now match smaller bonuses with NIL money, so it’s tough to lock up a whole host of lower tier prep guys. The Tigers have already started moving off the prep heavy draft strategy they began with in the Scott Harris era, and that will likely continue in years in which they don’t have extra pool money to sling around.
Dunwoody has a pretty good fastball-breaker combo under development and plenty of projection, so we would have really liked to see him locked up. A commitment to USC made that a tough go. Zielinski has solid velocity and the Canadian high school standout can really spin his breaking stuff and has plenty of projection left as well. He’ll head to UC Santa Barbara. Byers is a little more of a command guy right now, but sits in the low-90’s with a really nice delivery that bodes well for advanced command and feel for a changeup. He’s going to the University of Arizona.
The Tigers did land their more important prep and JUCO picks, locking up SS Maddux Molony, 1B Will Adams, 3B Robert Omidi, and speedy JUCO center fielder Tyler West already.
Overall we’re pretty happy with the draft class, but considering the limitations of the bonus pool and late round position, it was never going to look like a monster class out of the gate. We’ll see how things develop.
First rounder Cameron Flukey has the potential to be a really strong frontline starter, and we like LeBlanc despite thinking he’ll move off the shortstop position. He has plenty of juice and can really hit, giving the Tigers a right-handed infielder to balance out their lefty heavy system. Right-hander Evan Dempsey, the comp round B selection, is a really nice young arm with an interesting low arm slot that gives him some edge in deception and horizontal movement. Prep shortstop Dominic Pellegrin gives the Tigers the super high upside prep shortstop they always look for, though in a right-handed hitting model this time, with Molony adding another good young prep hitter with the ability to stick at shortstop as well.
Beyond the top guys, the sweet swinging Adams, who has major power potential, is probably the lower round pick to be most excited about, despite his positional limitations. The aforementioned West could turn out really well too. West can really hit but hasn’t faced enough quality competition to be real sure how he’ll translate to pro ball. His secondary tools will make for a heck of a player if he figures it out.
Overall a solid class considering the limitations, with a little more diversity of tools, handedness, and background than some of the recent Tigers draft classes. It’s just too bad that the Tigers couldn’t manage to land one of those three late round prep pitchers. Of course the recent history with prep pitching talent points to how tough it is to project development and health for teenaged pitchers in particular.
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