WEDNESDAY: Faedo’s deal is an above-slot arrangement worth $3.5MM, tweets FanRag’s Jon Heyman.
TUESDAY: The Tigers have signed first-round draft pick Alex Faedo, MLBPipeline.com’s Jonathan Mayo reports (Twitter link). Financial terms aren’t yet known, though the 18th overall pick carries a slot value of $3,214,600. Tony Paul of the Detroit News reported yesterday that Faedo was in Detroit and intended to sign his first pro contract, likely after taking a physical and finalizing any pending financial details.
Faedo is a 21-year-old right-hander out of the University of Florida. He was rated as the 10th-best prospect in this year’s draft class by Baseball America, with MLB.com (11th), Fangraphs’ Eric Longenhagen (13th) and ESPN’s Keith Law (27th) also giving him high grades. Law’s slightly-less-optimistic report notes that Faedo lacked showed an over-reliance on a slider and lacked command, making him a question mark as a future starting pitcher.
Faedo did have minor surgery on both knees last fall, however, which could explain his somewhat modest results this season. The BA and MLB.com scouting reports note that Faedo’s fastball, slider and changeup have all gotten generally good reviews from scouts, with his fastball reaching 93mph regularly and touching 95mph this spring once Faedo seemed more fully healthy.
The Tigers have worked out deals with the rest of their top-10 draft picks, as per MLB.com’s DraftTracker.
