Detroit Tigers Sign No. 3 Draft Pick Max Clark to Below Slot Deal
The Detroit Tigers have signed first-round draft pick Max Clark to a below slot deal, according to Kiley McDaniel of ESPN.com.
Clark, the No. 3 pick in the draft, gets $7.7 million. Slot was $8.34 million.
The 18-year-old hails from Indiana. This is a portion of his MLB.com draft prospect page:
Clark is the best prospect to come out of Indiana since Bryan Bullington went No. 1 overall in 2002 and the state's best prepster ever. Gatorade's National Baseball Player of the Year, he's a viable candidate for the Pirates with the top pick. Besides his physical ability, he has excellent makeup and a penchant for rising to the occasion, such as when he provided a clutch homer against Canada and three hits in the gold medal-winning game against Taiwan at the 18-and-under World Cup in September.
Clark has four tools that grade as at least plus, starting with his hitting ability, which some evaluators rate as plus-plus. He has a sweet left-handed swing and a mature approach that focuses on smoking line drives from gap to gap. He presently concentrates on making hard contact rather than launching balls, but his bat speed and projectable strength should translate into at least 20-homer power that he already hints at in batting practice.
Clark also appeared at the ESPY Awards last week. He was named the National Player of the Year by Gatorade.
While he's still several years away from the major leagues, he joins an exciting young crop of Tigers prospects and young players. The Tigers have already seen some of the fruits of that development in the big leagues with Riley Greene and Spencer Torkelson.
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