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.
Jim Callis broke down the bonus number and the full scouting profile that made Dempsey a Competitive Balance Round B pick.
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.