There are old sofas that haven’t been visited, haven’t seen as many plop-downs, as one of the most overworked lines in professional draft history:
“We’ll take the best player available.”
But if you’re the Tigers, picking third overall three weeks from Sunday, will it necessarily be the best player they can choose on the night of July 9 — or the best player at an acute position need who could also be called, with credence, “the best player available”?
Kyle Teel, a catcher from the University of Virginia, more and more looks like a genuine — maybe mandatory — Tigers option.
Lending support there is knowing the Tigers have been paying close attention to Teel, including having their top draft-masters on hand last month when Teel and the Cavaliers were playing a game at Georgia Tech. They’ll be examining him with forensic goggles during the College World Series, which begins later this week at Omaha, Nebraska, and has Virginia as a contestant.
Any attention from any MLB club comes naturally when Teel, 21, and a junior, is a 6-foot-1, 190-pound, left-handed batter who in 63 games for the Cavaliers is hitting .418, with a massive .484 on-base average, and .673 slugging percentage, which the calculator tells us equates to an OPS of 1.158.
He has a most appealing strikeout rate: 13%. His walk-rate is 11%, and part of that heavy on-base average.
The Tigers steadfastly this spring have been tied to one of the glittering outfielders who figure to go in the first five rounds: Wyatt Langford of the University of Florida, Dylan Crews of Louisiana State, or, perhaps, either of two prep superstars: Walker Jenkins or Max Clark.
But it is understood Teel has been a Tigers target throughout the 2023 spring. He is something of a consensus Top 10 talent heading into next month’s draft, sitting, in fact in the No. 10 spot on MLB Pipeline’s draft projections.
He makes sense not only from a skills standpoint for the Tigers at No. 3, but also for a most basic reason:
The Tigers have nothing in their farm system in the way of reliable projections as a starting catcher.
Dillon Dingler, at Double-A Erie, strikes out too much and more and more looks as if he could, at best, be a part-timer. Josh Crouch, at Single-A West Michigan, failed to hit at Erie and is back working at age 24 for the Whitecaps.
Catchers with legitimate big-league potential are the single-most difficult commodity to find at baseball’s amateur levels — and the Tigers confirm it.
Teel has 13 home runs and 25 doubles in his 63 games. His bat is thought by scouts to bear, in the big leagues, a safe home-run potential of 15-20 per season. And while catching’s rigors tend to diminish day-to-day offense, Teel strikes some scouts as being a safe .265 batter, with ability to hit a tad better.
Moreover, he is a blessed athlete with a plus-arm, which in this era of MLB warfare is viewed as indispensable.
And, so, do the Tigers decide July 9 on a simple formula: talent+need=Tigers third-overall draft pick?
Perhaps. And perhaps not.
It’s probable that either Crews or Langford will be sitting there at the third slot, and star hitters who can play defense are gold-nugget picks, which Crews and Langford certifiably are.
But the Tigers also know this: They’re rather flush with outfielders. Few other than Riley Greene have Crews’ and Langford’s glitter, but the Tigers have bodies ranging from All-Star status (Greene) to meaningfully skilled.
Kerry Carpenter, Akil Baddoo, and Matt Vierling are among the cast, not to mention assorted part-timers, as well as Parker Meadows ripening at Triple A, and others (Justyn-Henry Malloy, Wenceel Perez, Trei Cruz) also in the mix, with young Robert Campos a potential bruiser.
Left unsaid is that the Tigers’ best farm prospect, Colt Keith, also could be moving to the outfield.
Thus, rather plausibly, taking a talented catcher currently not on the horizon becomes for the Tigers more and more possible, if not in fact an imperative.
This all will crystallize in the next 20 days. But any focus on Teel as the Tigers get ready for July 9 no doubt matches attention a team from Detroit maintains as it works to build a roster that, at the moment, lacks an eventual long-term starting catcher.
Detroit News ranking of the top 10 amateur baseball talents as they currently sit leading into the 2023 MLB Draft, set for July 9-11.
▶ 1. Dylan Crews, Louisiana State University, outfielder, 6-foot-1, 203 pounds, right-handed batter: Crews is warming up, just in time for Omaha’s CWS tourney. He was 3-for-6, with a double and four walks, in LSU’s two Super Regional whippings of Kentucky. He could easily end the season at Omaha as the Pirates’ preference at one-overall. Last week’s ranking: 2
▶ 2. Wyatt Langford, OF, University of Florida, 6-1, 225, RH batter: Langford was a bit bashful at the plate in the past weekend’s NCAA Super Regional (0-for-8, with a walk and three strikeouts). It means Langford probably will explode as the College World Series gets going later this week, given that batting outbursts tend to be his habit. Last week’s ranking: 1
▶ 3. Paul Skenes, Louisiana State, RH starter, 6-6, 240: Skenes, likewise, is on his way to Omaha and no doubt to a start similar to the past weekend’s work against Kentucky: 7.2 innings, four hits, no runs, one walk, nine whiffs. The Nationals, who most handicappers believe are fixated on Skenes, were doubtless pleased — again. Last week’s ranking: 3
▶ 4. Walker Jenkins, CF, 6-3, 205, South Brunswick High, Southport, N.C, LH batter: The Detroit Tigers are thought to have cooled on Jenkins, and maybe that’s simply tied to a suspected preference for college bats with their first pick at No. 3 overall. Last week’s ranking: 4
▶ 5. Max Clark, OF, Franklin (Indiana) Community High School, 6-1, 190, LH batter: He’s the X-factor, as they love to say in these sweepstakes. Clark could go first. He could go fifth. Regardless, the overwhelming mass of skills and speed he advertises makes him a certain top-five grab, although he appears not to be a serious Tigers consideration. Last week’s ranking: 5
▶ 6. Jacob Wilson, shortstop, Grand Canyon University, 6-3, 190, RH batter: Just a matter of how quickly he’s snagged once the Fantastic Five have been parceled out. That sixth slot looks about right. Last week’s ranking: 6
▶ 7. Rhett Lowder, RH starter, Wake Forest, 6-2, 200: Tremendous celebrity Lowder has picked up during these June games, which simply burnishes an ace’s status on the best college baseball team in the land. And now, it’s on to Omaha, where his mastery could push him even further up the board ahead of July 9. Last week’s ranking: 7
▶ 8. Matt Shaw, IF, University of Maryland, 5-11, 182, RH batter: Big power displayed against good college pitching. Left-side infielder. Shaw’s going quickly on July 9. Last week’s ranking: 8
▶ 9. Kyle Teel, C, University of Virginia, 6-1, 190, LH batter: The Tigers could be warming to the point of being red-hot about Teel. What he does at Omaha as the Cavaliers head to the CWS may or may not be a decider for any MLB club when Teel has shown them each and every baseball week in 2023 his rich portfolio of skills. Still, the Tigers will be watching, studiously, as Teel duels against college baseball’s best. Last week’s ranking: 9
▶ 10. Jacob Gonzalez, SS, University of Mississippi, 6-2, 200, LH batter: When you play shortstop for an SEC team, bat left-handed, and have power — you’re going places. In this case, Gonzalez is headed to a nice MLB home, where he figures to be in a big-league lineup within a couple of years. Last week’s ranking: 10
Knocking at the door
▶ Colin Houck, SS, Parkview High, Lilburn, Georgia, 6-2, 193, RH batter: Only question is: Might this be a surprise top-10 grab?
▶ Arjun Nimmala, SS, Strawberry Crest High (Dover, Fla.), 6-1, 170, RH batter: The clubs that love skills and big-time projection love Nimmala.
▶ Noble Meyer, RH starter, Jesuit High, West Linn, Ore., 6-5, 200: In an earlier era (pre-Scott Harris) this is the kind of guy you might have seen the Tigers draft exceedingly early.
▶ Chase Dollander, RH starter, University of Tennessee, 6-2, 210: It would be like the Guardians, who specialize in pitchers whose status has slipped – and Dollander’s has taken a dive in 2023 — to pluck Dollander and promptly turn him into a Cy Young Award contender.
▶ Jack Hurley, CF, Virginia Tech, 6-foot, 185, LH hitter: Maybe not mid-first round, but close. The bat, the position, the Atlantic Coast Conference pedigree, all count.
▶ Hurston Waldrep, RH starter, University of Florida, 6-1, 210: He’s back on the front burner, having punched out 13 during Florida’s weekend vanquishing of South Carolina. Big finish to what had been an erratic spring.
Lynn Henning is a freelance writer and retired Detroit News sports reporter.