DETROIT — Tarik Skubal was holding court at his locker Saturday afternoon when the Detroit Tigers’ top draft selection popped up on a clubhouse television.
The pick at No. 22 was Cameron Flukey, a right-handed pitcher from Coastal Carolina.
MLB Network showed a brief overview of Flukey’s profile. His fastball sits near 97 mph. His average induced vertical break hovers near 19 inches.
“Yeah,” Skubal said, nodding his head. “We’re good.”
Flukey’s arrival as a first-round draft pick is, well, no fluke. There was a time early in his high school career in Egg Harbor Township, N.J., when he considered giving up baseball. He barely made his freshman team and sat on the bench.
“I definitely think I made a good decision to keep going with it,” Flukey said Saturday night. “I’m so thankful, and I wake up every day loving this game more and more.”
Once his growth and development started, his ascension was rapid. After his father connected him with pitching coach Cesar Garcia, he was throwing 85 by the next summer. The fastball kept ticking up, touching 96 by his senior season.
“I think the biggest thing for me was just going out there and getting innings and pitching, getting experience, just working on my stuff in-game,” Flukey said. “I think that’s the best thing you can do.”
These days, Flukey is a 6-foot-6 beast with a long list of intriguing attributes. His size gives him plus extension coming down the slope. He throws from an extreme over-the-top angle. Entering this college season, many draft experts viewed Flukey as one of the best pitchers on the board, a player who had the potential to be a top-10 pick. He made a name for himself in 2025 when he held LSU to one run over six innings in a dazzling College World Series start.
A stress fracture in a rib before the 2026 season, though, caused Flukey’s stock to tumble. He threw only 24 innings with a 4.13 ERA at Coastal Carolina this past year.
Flukey’s robust package of raw stuff was still enough to make him a first-rounder — one the Tigers seemed quite pleased to pick.
“He has an explosive fastball that he throws a ton of strikes with,” Tigers scouting director Mark Conner said. “He has the ability to get it to both sides of the plate, work it up and down. His ability to spin the baseball — both the curveball and slider — (are) of high quality.”
The fastball with terrific vertical ride is Flukey’s real calling card. The 12-6 curveball profiles as his best secondary weapon. Both his curveball and slider can generate swing-and-miss, though throwing them for strikes could pose a challenge at the pro level.
“Physically, I felt really good the whole time,” Flukey said of his return from injury. “I think the mechanics had to come back in sync. Pitch command, the feel of the ball out of my hand had to come back a little bit because I took nine weeks off from pitching. … The command, slowly — every outing was getting back more and more.”
If there is an early question about Flukey, it might center on the development of his changeup. The change lagged behind his other offerings this season, but it should be important in determining how he will fare against left-handed hitters at the upper levels.
“A lot of times, a changeup is a true feel pitch,” Conner said. “With the time that he missed this year, it hasn’t had the repetitions that it would have if he would have been pitching the full season. … Truthfully, with the repetitions and athleticism and the feel that he has with his arm, we think it’s got a chance to develop into a nice pitch.”
Although the Tigers’ pitching development in the minor leagues has taken a downturn with injuries and underperformance over the past year, Flukey seems like a strong candidate to become a more potent monster on the mound with a few subtle tweaks.
“The Tigers have awesome development pitching-wise, and I’m super excited to get started with them,” he said.
The rest of the draft
The most notable thing about this year’s MLB Draft for the Tigers: They strayed from what had been their usual approach under president of baseball operations Scott Harris. They did not select a left-handed-hitting shortstop. They did not pluck an obscure middle-of-the-diamond athlete from a cold-weather state.
Tigers officials swore they were not targeting college pitching out of need. The bulk of early first-round selections from other teams were position players, perhaps allowing talented pitchers like Flukey to fall into their laps. Flukey marks the first time the Tigers have used their top pick on a college pitcher since they drafted Casey Mize in 2018.
“Just a reflection of how the draft fell,” assistant general manager Rob Metzler said. “It might look like a different crop than last year. And obviously, our processes continue to develop. But I wouldn’t take anything more from it other than it’s the way 2026 Day 1 worked out.”
Whatever the reason, the Tigers selected two college right-handers who could help bolster the pitching depth in their system.
And though the two shortstops they selected hit right-handed, both of them could be interesting to follow.
A quick overview of the rest of Detroit’s Day 1 selections:
Second-round pick Tyson LeBlanc set a Kansas Jayhawks record with 25 home runs this season. (Evert Nelson / Imagn Images)
No. 61 (Round 2): SS Tyson LeBlanc, Kansas
LeBlanc set a Jayhawks record with 25 home runs this past season. The power is his most intriguing tool. He’s otherwise solid all-around. He’s one of those players who will have to prove he can stick at shortstop. But even if he moves, he could be solid at either third or second.
“It’s not just power,” Conner said. “He had a tremendous season, and honestly, I think the thing that we’re most excited about is his makeup and how he’s wired. He is an ultra-competitive kid that just has a really good mind for the game, really good aptitude and has shown progress over his college career.”
No. 69 (Competitive Balance Round B): RHP Evan Dempsey, Florida Gulf Coast
A two-way player at FGCU, the Tigers announced Dempsey as a right-handed pitcher. He has a solid fastball and stands out because of the 3,000 rpm spin rates on his breaking ball.
“He’s been focusing a lot of energy on both sides of the ball,” Conner said. “Truthfully, as he focuses on one side of the ball on the mound, we think he’s got a chance to take off. We’re super excited about it.”
No. 125 (Round 4): Dominic Pellegrin, SS, Holy Cross High School (Louisiana)
Pellegrin was a later selection, but there are some ways he resembles the Tigers’ 2025 first-round pick, Jordan Yost. Pellegrin was more of a late bloomer on the showcase circuit who started to generate buzz in the lead-up to the draft. The Tulane commit hit .375 in the MLB Draft League and received good marks for speed and athleticism. He might have to cut down his leg kick or otherwise alter his swing, but there is upside here.
“He’s a very athletic kid that is wired really well, that has really good hands at short and has shown the ability to put the bat on the ball,” Conner said.
