Opportunistic Tigers jump on power arm Flukey with No. 22 overall pick

The Tigers earned a reputation for favoring up-the-middle position players out of high school in three Drafts under president of baseball operations Scott Harris, assistant GM Rob Metzler and amateur scouting director Mark Conner. But just as Harris and his front office look to be opportunistic in waivers and trades, they want to be ready when opportunity knocks in the Draft.

So when Coastal Carolina right-hander Cameron Flukey dropped to their slot at 22nd overall on Saturday, they pounced.

Never mind that the Tigers hadn’t used their top pick on a college pitcher since Casey Mize went first overall in 2018, or a first-round pick on any pitcher since Jackson Jobe and Ty Madden went third and 32nd overall respectively in 2021, or that Conner’s last first-round pick on a college pitcher was Cal Quantrill a decade ago while in the same role with the Padres. The Tigers preach winning at the margins, and getting arguably a top-15 talent – MLB Pipeline had Flukey ranked 15th going in – at the 22nd overall pick fit in.

Flukey entered his junior season at Coastal Carolina as one of the top pitchers of his class, a first-team All-American who went 7-2 with a 3.09 ERA last year as a sophomore, leading the Chanticleers to the College World Series. But a stress fracture in his ribs delayed his season debut until late April, and he went 0-2 with a 4.13 ERA in seven starts from there.

Still, the talent is real, from a fastball that sits in the mid-90s and tops out at 98 mph with good ride to a solid upper-70s curveball, a low- to mid-80s slider and a mid-80s changeup. Flukey maintained a high strikeout rate through his career, averaging 11.6 per nine innings, including 31 over 24 innings this spring.

Tigers players were in the clubhouse getting ready for pregame work Saturday afternoon when the pick came up on MLB Network. Tarik Skubal was in the middle of an interview and paused for a minute to check out the pick. When he saw the pitch arsenal, velocity numbers and average 19 inches of vertical ride, he nodded in approval.

“Yeah, we’re good,” Skubal said with a smile.

Skubal knows something about pitchers with first-round talent who drop coming back from injury. He was a ninth-round selection by the Tigers in 2018 after coming back from Tommy John surgery with a junior season at Seattle University that was good but not up to his previous numbers. That drop has motivated Skubal throughout his journey to become a back-to-back American League Cy Young Award winner.

If Flukey arrives with a similar chip on his shoulder, the Tigers could have another nasty, highly motivated pitcher on their hands. And they’ll likely have no regret about going against their pattern.

Flukey also addresses a weakness in the Tigers’ system in a relative lack of top pitching prospects. Detroit has a good foundation of homegrown starting pitchers for next year with Troy Melton, Keider Montero, Madden, Jobe and Reese Olson, the latter two currently recovering from surgery. But it’s hard to identify a surefire Major League starter currently in the system.

Just 11 spots on the current Tigers Top 30 Prospects list are held by pitchers, none higher than eighth, and just two -- Andrew Sears and Jaden Hamm -- have thrown a pitch above High-A. Harris said after last season that the team needs to do better developing young pitching.

Detroit’s pitching development strategy has centered on drafting undervalued pitchers in the middle rounds. Malachi Witherspoon, last year’s second-round pick out of Oklahoma, bucked that. Flukey’s pick arguably puts the stereotype down for good.