A stream of early blindsides gave the Tigers a gift Sunday night when, with the 12th overall pick, they scooped up Texas Tech slugger Jace Jung with their first turn in the 2022 MLB Draft.
Jung was a Tigers target throughout their spring scouting safaris. But they couldn’t count on a left-handed slugger, who played second base at Texas Tech, to be free for the grabbing.
That changed when pitchers began tumbling early from the draft board — Kumar Rocker, in a shocker, going third-overall to the Rangers; Cade Horton, from the University of Oklahoma to the Cubs at No. 8. Then, Gabriel Hughes, at 10, to the Rockies.
Jung is 6-foot, 205 pounds, turns 22 in October, and is the younger brother of Josh Jung, who three years ago was the draft’s eighth overall pick by the Texas Rangers.
Jung this season in 61 games batted .335 for the Red Raiders, with a .481 on-base percentage, lusty .612 slugging average, which was good for a 1.093 OPS.
He hit 14 homers, with 18 doubles, and a triple, all while striking out 42 times that was bested by a stat the Tigers definitely liked 59 walks.
Jung had a bruised hip this spring hat hurt his work on the basepaths, and his range at second base. But his left-handed swing — a flatter, on-plane stroke than one typically sees — thrilled the Tigers and scouts, in general.
It is not known that Jung can last at second base. Range considerations could make the infield problematic, and make first base an eventual option, even if Spencer Torkelson owns a long-term lease there.
Scouts also believe Jung will need to develop more pull-power, which they believe is inevitable, and which could make him particularly lethal at Comerica Park.
Jung is a Scott Boras client, but the Tigers have a long relationship with Boras and a signing figure no doubt was solidified before Detroit struck Sunday.
The draft got the shake-up some thought was brewing — and the Tigers prayed would deliver them a prize — when Rocker rocked all the predictors and went third-overall to Texas.
Rocker was returned-to-sender in last year’s draft when the Mets backed away from medicals after taking him in the draft’s first round. But the Vanderbilt star, a right-hander who threw some of the best power pitches in college baseball a year ago, turned his off-year into a renewal. Any physical issues were vanquished and Rocker jumped to the draft’s third slot, far ahead of where forecasters had him pegged.
That moved down a peg a hitter the Tigers had presumed could be gone in the initial 11 turns.
The rest of the draft’s early business followed reasonable order:
Jackson Holliday, son of ex-MLB slugger Matt Holliday, was Baltimore’s choice at No. 1 overall. Druw Jones, another son of a premier former big-leaguer, was the draft’s second pick, by Arizona.
Hotshot infielder Termarr Johnson was the Pirates’ pick at four overall. The Nationals then jumped on IMG Academy superstar, Elijah Greene.
A second surprise, and a second present to the Tigers, came when the Cubs opted for a pitcher — Cade Horton, University of Oklahoma — with the draft’s seventh turn.
The Twins followed with a Twins-style pick — Cal-Poly infielder Brooks Lee, a switch-hitter who avoids strikeouts and who can be counted on, in the tradition of Twins stalwarts, to torment for years a team from Detroit.
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That left the Royals at No. 9 to pluck a left-handed hitter who the Tigers might have craved — Gavin Cross, a fleet center-fielder and power hitter who could be headed for annual All-Star duty.
Next with a draft early-stunner were the Rockies, taking Gonzaga right-hander Gabriel Hughes at No. 10 overall.
Left alive were a handful of hitters the Tigers no doubt would have been happy to ponder, with Georgia Tech catcher Kevin Parada, a possible top-five dandy, still unclaimed — through 10 picks.
Parada qualified as an early semi-shocker, in terms of hitters, and in this case one ignored, until the Mets pounced on Parada at No. 11.
That brought on stage the Tigers’ pick, and the anointing of Jung as some potential high-octane hitting for a team, and an organization overall, crying for offense and run-production that might arrive soon, and, they hope, stay a while.
Lynn Henning is a freelance writer and retired Detroit News sports reporter.