Drafting prep place gamers with their high picks has been the core of the Detroit Tigers’ draft technique since Scott Harris took over the membership from Al Avila. It’s gone very, very properly. Despite fears in regards to the longer timelines concerned, Kevin McGonigle, Max Clark, and Bryce Rainer are all ranked within the high half of nationwide high 100 prospect lists already, with McGonigle set to debut as quickly as Opening Day. That’s a reasonably spectacular win fee by way of two drafts, and this 12 months we’ll see the debut of first spherical prep shortstop Jordan Yost, and prep catcher Michael Oliveto, their high two picks within the entrance workplace’s third draft class final summer time. Perhaps in a 12 months’s time the Tigers could have hit huge on one other pair of prep prospects on the high of the draft.
Oliveto was the Tigers choice within the aggressive stability decide A spherical between the primary and second rounds final summer time. Selected thirty fourth total out of Hauppauge HS on New York’s Long Island, the Tigers paid him $2,447,500, about $400K underslot, to pry him from his dedication to Yale. As is the case with all catchers, particularly in case you ask them, Oliveto is a shiny younger man who posted a 1460 SAT rating with the excellent grades you’d count on.
Advertisement
The not too long ago turned 19-year-old didn’t essentially get the discover {that a} high younger prep hitter would garner coming from baseball hotbeds within the south and out west, however he was comfortably the highest prep hitter within the northeast. Between his junior and senior seasons, Oliveto broke into nationwide consciousness in an enormous means along with his monster efficiency within the Perfect Game WWBA World Championship in Jupiter, Florida the place he mashed a pair of dwelling runs and three different additional base hits in simply 13 at-bats. While there are questions on his means to stay as a catcher, this was one of the crucial thrilling prep bats in the entire draft class.
Oliveto is a left-handed hitter, standing 6’3” and weighing in at 185 kilos on draft day. There is loads of projection for him to get stronger, and a very good probability that he develops plus energy as he will get stronger. He has the athleticism to challenge as an outfielder in addition to a catcher, however that athleticism provides him a very good probability to develop right into a high shelf backstop as properly. The principal defensive query is whether or not his present common arm power will enhance over time, and whether or not his bat might outpace his protection to a level the place the Tigers resolve transferring him to a neater place is the higher choice to get his bat into the lineup.
Those choices are nonetheless years away, however the Tigers coach catchers very properly within the minor leagues. Oliveto was the highest prep hitter in his area as a catcher, whereas posting excellent grades and moving into Yale, so we are able to at the least say that the intelligence, motivation, and total work ethic are in place for Oliveto to develop his expertise so far as it can take him. Whether his arm power will tick as much as make him extra viable as a beginning main league catcher is a query that gained’t be answered for a number of years.
The key promoting level is Oliveto’s superior plate self-discipline, eye for the zone, and energy potential. He’s obtained the relaxed, assured strategy you wish to see within the batter’s field, and a clean highly effective left-handed stroke with current pull energy. Whether he’ll develop the pitch recognition and batspeed to deal with MLB caliber pitching can solely be answered a lot additional down the street. There’s at all times some skepticism for gamers within the northeast and Midwest who don’t face elite highschool pitching that always, however Oliveto has proven all the things you could possibly ask in opposition to the competitors he did face. You’ll recall some comparable questions on Kevin McGonigle as a Philly space prep star, and we are able to solely hope it goes that properly.
Advertisement
The Tigers have already introduced Oliveto over to main league camp for 2 video games to get him a plate look or two in entrance of the larger crowds. He’s put the ball in play twice. The proven fact that the Tigers figured he deserved these appearances as a deal with bodes properly for the way he’s appeared on the backfields this spring. A number of clips from reporters readily available have proven him hitting some tanks in BP, however he’s already proven common uncooked energy and just a little extra at instances regardless of his youth, so no shock there. We haven’t seen Jordan Yost in Grapefruit League motion but, for no matter that’s price, however each are scheduled to be on the squad for subsequent week’s Spring Breakout recreation, when the Tigers’ prospects will tackle baseball’s high prospect, Konnor Griffin, and the Pirates’ farm on March twentieth. Expect each to get at the least one at-bat, as Bryce Rainer did final 12 months in making his public professional debut.
My sense is that Oliveto is superior sufficient on the plate that the Tigers will ship him to play for the Single-A Lakeland Flying Tigers instantly in April. If they’re snug along with his catching sufficient to work behind the plate at that degree, there isn’t a lot level to him spending a whole lot of time in Complex League ball. Long-term, Oliveto runs properly sufficient to play nook outfield, and if his bat develops rapidly, taking part in him there and at first base often is the transfer. For now, a very good season on the plate with the Flying Tigers will finish any lingering considerations about him going through weaker highschool degree pitching than prep hitters elsewhere within the nation. That alone would ship him up nationwide rankings fairly rapidly, particularly if his work since draft day and all through this season reveals him refining his catching recreation.
