Detroit Tigers: 3 players to watch for in the 2021 MLB Draft

Chayce McDermott – RHP from Ball State University

Lastly, in this set of three players to circle on the draft board, Chayce McDermott is a player the Detroit Tigers need to be paying attention to. He may not be the first-rounder every team is sought after, but McDermott is someone to watch for.

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The 6-foot-3, 198-pound right-handed pitcher, has spent the last three seasons throwing baseballs for the Ball State University Cardinals.

McDermott is another guy I have done some game prep and scouting for, and that’s why I included him as someone to keep an eye on.

McDermott has a lot to like with his stuff, and his stats were pretty darn good in 2021 as well. This year, for Ball State, McDermott threw 82.2 innings, making 15 starts on the year.

He posted a 3.05 ERA, pitched to a 1.15 WHIP, and managed 125 punchouts while walking only 36 opposing hitters.

McDermott is a hard-throwing right-handed pitcher who sits in the mid-90s and has reached back to touch 98 mph. He has some occasional life on the pitch, running it arm side and challenging hitters inside, finding success in doing so.

He features a slower and big-breaking curveball with 12-to-6 movement. It works mid-70s and pairs well with his harder and tight-breaking slider. The two pair well to fool hitters and keep them off balance.

McDermott also throws a change piece with some arm-side fade to it. His fastball is his bread and butter; he throws it for strikes and pounds the zone with velocity, forcing hitters to beat him. If the Tigers selected him, I would anticipate them to work him through the minors, working on developing his secondary pitches better.

He has the two breaking ball combo that he could work on to craft a dirty repertoire and wind up being a great arm of the future for the organization. McDermott is a starter at the collegiate level and could carry that into professional ball, but MLB dot com labeled him as a quick-moving reliever.

If the Tigers wanted to convert McDermott and fast-track him, making him into a hard-throwing reliever would be the move. In this case, I would expect him to be heavily working on the breaking balls, throwing them for strikes, locating, and inducing whiffs, so he has a deadly pitch mix by the time he gets to the big leagues.

Nonetheless, the early-ish round arm is someone the Detroit Tigers need to keep an eye on as this draft gets closer and the team starts piecing together draft boards and lists to work off of.