The Tigers announced Monday that they’ve agreed to terms with No. 32 overall pick Ty Madden. The now-former Texas right-hander signed for a $2.5MM bonus that comes in north of his slot’s $2,257,300 value, Jim Callis of MLB.com reports (via Twitter).
Entering the draft, Madden was seen as one of the top three or four college arms available, but he slid down the board a bit and landed with the Tigers with the second pick of Competitive Balance Round A. The 21-year-old was lights out from 2020-21 with the Longhorns, pitching to a combined 2.34 ERA with a 35.4 percent strikeout rate against an 8.7 percent walk rate through the life of 138 2/3 innings.
Madden ranked as the draft’s No. 9 prospect at MLB.com and was listed 12th both at Baseball America and FanGraphs. ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel tabbed him 19th, and Madden landed 23rd on Keith Law’s list at The Athletic. Listed at 6’3″ and 215 pounds, Madden sits in the 95-96 range with his fastball and leans on a slider that draws praise as a plus pitch from scouts. His changeup is a lesser-used offering but gives him a chance at a third average or better pitch to incorporate in his repertoire.
The Tigers were focused on arms early in this year’s draft, selecting pitchers with eight of their first 11 picks — including Madden at No. 32 and high school right-hander Jackson Jobe with their top pick at No. 3 overall.
I love the tigers draft. They have a bright future.
Sure, they signed him for over slot but less than $250K which is terrific! That should mean they can also sign Pacheco even if they have to go over slot.
Over slot but a lot less than a #9 overall pick (and still less than a #19) so I’d say Madden’s a bargain!
why the angels didn’t draft him is beyond me…
That is just not how the Halos roll.
Angels are gonna do Angels things.
At first I was disappointed with DET draft. They veered off the path of drafting as close to MLB ready players as possible. (They targeted Riley Greene for years prior.) After I listened to a few pre-draft podcasts, I did a complete 180. All their draft picks seem to follow a plan vs. the almost randomness they drafted prior to this year.
DET wants to be a Pitching First organization. However, I feel that they still need to emphasize developing and acquiring players with exceptional defense to maximize their strategy.
The cutoff for me occurs in 2-1/2 more years when Miguel Cabrera is no longer the feature player of the Detroit Tigers.
They didn’t draft Greene due to his MLB readiness. Once Rutsch, Vaughn, and especially Bleday were gone, they drafted long-term upside. Guys like Jung and Bishop were far more MLB ready. See also: Matt Manning.
I should’ve made that clear in my message. Riley Greene seemed like the exception at the time and he is still not MLB ready. On one of the lousy sports talk shows in Detroit metro they talked about how the Tigers had scouted Greene a few years prior to the draft and we’re always going to drat him.
Riley Greene was drafted out of high school.
He is the antithesis of MLB ready.
You mean when they for sure take his $31 million and invest it in legitimate MLB players? Or will Chris simply pocket that money?
Rather unusual for this type of info to leak from the Detroit organization. Practice has been to announce all their signings at once.
Well, Miguel knocked in five runs tonight and, has a plaque waiting in the Hall. That said, he is not the feature player of the Tigers.
Could you imagine all the people complaining if cabrera were hitting .340 with 35 homers… they would say he was wasted on this team.
Hes still better than many of the tiger players today.
The power is not there, but since June, Cabrera hits at some .300ish clip. The enormous salary must sting for the owner, but at least Cabrera is no negative and spending near the luxury tax has been a non-issue for years.
Gruß,
BSHH
LOL
Okay… That signing bonus would have been below slot value for a lot of teams that passed on him.