At the end of the night, Scott Pleis hadn't changed the polo shirt he wore earlier in the day — it was the same purple- and white-striped shirt he'd sported during a midday video conference call.
When Pleis, the Detroit Tigers’ amateur scouting director since 2011, returned on video, shortly after 10 p.m. in Detroit, minutes after the Tigers finished their draft by selecting a hitter — their sixth in as many selections — he looked as if he hadn’t broken a sweat.
Pleis is an avid golfer; he nearly earned his PGA Tour card in the early 1990s and knows all too well about luck, both on the course and in the draft room. A few blades of grass here or a surprise pick there can make all the difference.
The Tigers' easy pick was already out of the way, with Arizona State junior Spencer Torkelson going No. 1 overall Wednesday night. It was a no-brainer, regardless of what glove he eventually wears. The final five picks, though, were the true test of the Tigers’ amateur scouts' work for more than a year.
As draft evaluations began making the rounds, both from on-the-record pundits and off-the-record talent evaluators and executives — nearly all of whom gave the Tigers high marks — perhaps the surest sign of success came in Pleis’ comfortable demeanor, easily apparent despite the remote nature of a video conference.
[Experts weigh in on Tigers' draft: 'Hard not to like']
Asked just how closely the Tigers came to a best-case scenario, Pleis said, “You know what. … really well. Pretty close. I would’ve liked to have gotten an arm in there, but it just didn’t work out."
“But it’s tough to complain. Obviously, starting out with (Torkelson), it’s pretty good just from there. Getting a quality catcher with the upside and these other hitters, really, in a shortened draft, I think it really worked out for us.”
Torkelson is projected as an impact bat, doubling the organization's total of those after last year’s first-round pick, Riley Greene.
[Tigers take Ohio State catcher Dillon Dingler in second round]
With the first pick of the second day, the Tigers took Ohio State’s Dillon Dingler, a catcher with power and room to improve, seen by some as a first-round talent. But their biggest break came in Competitive Balance Round B, sandwiched between the second and third rounds: LSU outfielder Daniel Cabrera was still on the board.
As the pick neared, general manager Al Avila phoned his longtime friend, LSU head coach Paul Manieri — the Tigers wanted Cabrera.
“Definitely,” Pleis said. “Because, looking over the names, you always kind of think the worst, that the guys you were looking at are going to be gone. But I was definitely surprised with those two players. I think we maybe got a little bit lucky that they got to us. They could have easily gone, for sure.”
For the Tigers, who had their top-pick advantage minimized when Major League Baseball shortened the draft from 40 rounds to five, the luck was welcome. Timing has not been on their side throughout their rebuild, from a league-wide shift away from dealing prospects for veterans at the deadline to the coronavirus-induced disruption of minor league baseball at the time they need their top prospects to get experience.
[The problem with overthinking Spencer Torkelson's move to third base]
Even beyond getting the best player in the draft, the Tigers never lost command of the draft board. With no apparent reaches, they clearly executed the plan that began last season: Beef up the offensive side of the farm system. Accordingly, the Tigers didn’t worry about picks above or below "slot value."
“We thought we had really good picks and we didn’t have to do that kind of thing,” Pleis said.
After Cabrera, the Tigers took Trei Cruz, a shortstop from Rice with two generations of baseball behind him. In the fourth, they took Arizona State’s actual third baseman — a switch-hitting power hitter in Gage Workman — and in the fifth, they took a Sun Devils recruit in Mississippi high schooler Colt Keith, who is thought to have massive upside as a left-handed bat.
Still, the picks are just a beginning; the development of these players is the key now.
And honestly, that could be the Tigers' biggest problem. MLB drafts are filled with far more misses than hits, and the Tigers haven't had the best record on player development over the past few seasons.
Dingler may well be the organization's catcher of the future. Then again, that was supposed to beJake Rogers, acquired in 2017 in the Justin Verlander trade. Or maybe the two picks at catcher in the first five rounds of the 2017 draft who have not panned out.
The Tigers' last homegrown impact hitter was Nick Castellanos, drafted in 2010, a decade ago. After years of focusing on pitching in drafts, the team shifted last year to position players — a few years after most other teams. The half-season of performances by the Class of 2019 since — a small sample size, to be sure — has been underwhelming, with the exception of Greene (who played at three levels in as many months).
But that development is in the future. Right now, the only thing that can be judged are the picks. It looks like the Tigers made the right calls. If so, depth will soon emerge on the offensive side; the Torkelson pick alone provides a dose of hope for the near future for Pleis and the Tigers.
Pleis knows the pressure of his position — if the Tigers' rebuild will be successful, it’s going to get done with the draft. And facing that pressure, in golf terms, he hit his drives in the middle of the fairway, played to his strengths and walked off as the proverbial "leader in the clubhouse."
But there's no popping the Tork, er, cork on a bottle of champagne, not yet. Another beverage, though?
“I was just getting ready to get the beer out,” Pleis said as Thursday night neared Friday morning.
That he earned, with a solid draft, at the least.
Contact Anthony Fenech at afenech@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @anthonyfenech. Read more on the Detroit Tigers and sign up for our Tigers newsletter.
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