The Tigers are searching for cornerstones across the diamond. They believe they've found another in shortstop Bryce Rainer, drafted 11th overall in Sunday night's MLB Draft.
The 19-year-old out of Harvard-Westlake High School, a baseball powerhouse in Los Angeles, said that getting word from the Tigers "was probably the best phone call I’ve ever received in my life."
"If anything I can compare it to, I would say like a kid at Christmas before you find out that Santa isn’t real," Rainer said. "I did not think it was going to be the Tigers, I’m going to be honest with you."
Rainer had minimal contact with the Tigers ahead of the draft, and never came to Detroit for a workout or formal interview. But the Tigers have had their eyes on him "for quite a while," said director of amateur scouting Mark Connor, "at different points over multiple years." They love what they saw in Rainer's growth with the bat, coupled with his ease on defense in his first season at shortstop.
"He trended in a really good direction in controlling the strike zone and hunting pitches that can he do damage on," said Connor.
Over the past year, Rainer said he put "a lot more thought" into his swing, including "some mechanical things I needed to get fixed" to improve his contact rate. That spawned a senior season in which he hit .505 with twice as many walks as strikeouts on his way to being named a MaxPreps First Team All-American and The Los Angeles Daily News All-Area Player of the Year.
With his powerful left-handed stroke and smooth feet at short, the 6'3 Rainer has drawn early comparisons to Rangers and former Dodgers superstar Corey Seager.
"I think it’s a great comparison," he said. "I’ve watched him since he started playing in the majors, he’s been one of my favorite players. From day one, I was like, ‘Oh wow, this guy is really similar to me. Plays shortstop, tall, lefty, throws righty.’ So to be compared to him I thought was awesome. If I end up having a record like he does in the major leagues, I don’t think I would be too mad about that."
Nor would the Tigers. Seager is a four-time All-Star and two-time World Series champ, and one of the best players in the game. He, too, was a first-round pick out of high school, 18th overall in 2012. He debuted three years later for the Dodgers, Rainer's favorite team growing up, and went on to win Rookie of the Year when Rainer was 11 years old.
Tigers GM Jeff Greenberg said the club was hopeful that Rainer would still be on the board at No. 11 and "extremely excited when he was."
"An impact athlete with a really unique combination of size, athleticism, the way he moves with that physical package, a left-handed bat at a premium position up the middle. When we talk about trying to find foundational traits that we want to build around, Bryce brings so many of those to the table," Greenberg said.
Rainer, who has also been dominant on the mound, had a commitment in place to Texas. That may have led to his slide out of the top 10 picks. While declining to go into specifics about calls he had with other teams, Rainer said there were multiple scenarios on the table and it's safe to assume the Tigers will sign him for over-slot money.
It's the second time in as many drafts under Scott Harris that the Tigers have taken a position player out of high school with their top pick. Rainer joins centerfielder and third overall pick Max Clark as an organizational building block. Infielder Kevin McGonigle, another first-rounder out of high school in last year's draft, has thrust himself into the conversation as well.
The Tigers clearly view Rainer as a shortstop. And moreover, as a bat. They remain desperate for more of them in Detroit. Rainer, whose Perfect Game profile notes that he has "big two-way potential moving forward," did say that he could see himself pitching in addition to hitting in the future: "100 percent. I’ve done that my whole life. ... I’m prepared to do both."
But Rainer has always viewed himself first as a hitter: "That’s what I thought I was going to be, and pitching was secondary."
"Even though there was kind of a consensus that my pitching side was better, I always thought my hitting side was better," he said. "So going into this offseason-slash-spring, it was a bet on myself, when I was working with myself, like, 'Alright, they think I’m going to be a pitcher -- I’m gonna try to be a hitter now."
It's a bet worth placing, for Rainer and the Tigers. If it hits -- and Clark does, too -- Detroit has two franchise players up the middle.