Detroit came out of this draft with a real find at pick 69, and now it's official money on the table. Evan Dempsey, the FGCU right-hander who spent his college career making scouts argue about whether he should pitch or hit, has signed with the Tigers.
Supplemental 2nd-rder Evan Dempsey's bonus w/@Tigers is $1,197,500 (slot 69 value = $1,254,200). @FGCU_Baseball RHP, 92-95 mph fastball, high sspin rates on low-80s curve & mid-80s slider, plenty of strikes. Also hit .335/.413/.538 as an OF. @MLBDraft
Per Jim Callis, the bonus comes in at $1,197,500 against a slot value of $1,254,200 — Detroit saving a little bit of pool money while still paying like they mean it for a Competitive Balance Round B pick. That's the kind of number teams hand out when they're not worried about a kid getting cold feet and heading back to school.
The stuff explains the price tag. Dempsey sits 92-95 mph, and Callis flagged the high-spin shapes on both his low-80s curveball and mid-80s slider — the kind of spin rates that make player development departments salivate. He racked up a 2.88 ERA and 207 strikeouts across three seasons at FGCU, per reporting, and this year alone he added nearly 3 mph to his heater.
What makes Dempsey unusual is that the arm wasn't even his only carrying tool. He hit .335/.413/.538 as an outfielder this past season, good enough that he was a semifinalist for the Dick Howser Trophy, the Golden Spikes Award AND the John Olerud Two-Way Player Award — while also taking home Atlantic Sun Pitcher of the Year. Two-way success at the college level almost never survives the pro transition, but it's exactly why teams pay attention when a guy does both well enough to be in the conversation for three different national awards in the same year.
Detroit made the call early that Dempsey profiles as a pitcher, not an outfielder, and that's the right side of the bet given the fastball-curveball-slider combo. He goes down as the second-highest pick in FGCU program history, trailing only Chris Sale, who the White Sox took 13th overall back in 2010 — not bad company for a mid-major program to be keeping.
For a Tigers org that's leaned on pitching development to stay competitive, adding a 20-year-old with this kind of velocity jump and shape is a low-key coup out of a draft class that also included first-rounder Cameron Flukey. Dempsey won't pitch an inning that counts for a while, but the bonus check tells you Detroit already believes in the arm.