Tigers pick No. 22 in 2026 MLB Draft. Here are the best, worst picks
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On Saturday, July 11, the Detroit Tigers will make the No. 22 pick in the 2026 MLB Draft. That selection will be the 62nd in that slot, dating back to the entry draft’s inception in 1965.
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So what can they expect from No. 22?
For coming in the bottom third of the first round, the No. 22 slot has delivered a surprising amount of talent: 43 of the 59 picks (prior to 2024) have made the majors – a 72.9% rate of promotion.
That includes eight position players with at least 1,000 MLB games, and 10 pitchers with at least 250 appearances. In all, the No. 22 picks have produced a combined 69,614 plate appearances, 16,482 hits, 8,773 runs and 1,859 homers, plus 15,863 innings, 870 wins and 11,807 strikeouts. There have been 10 All-Stars (covering 24 appearances), two players with 3,000 hits, one Hall of Famer (plus one pick whose off-field scandal has kept him out of Cooperstown and another pick who’s likely headed there based on his work in the dugout). There’s also a No. 22 pick who lost his lunch, and then his job, with the Tigers.
Will the Tigers’ pick reach any of those milestones? It’s too soon to tell, but while we wait, here’s a look at the most notable No. 22 picks in MLB draft history:
The best No. 22 picks in MLB draft history
Craig Biggio
Biggio was drafted by the Houston Astros as a catcher in 1987 (out of Seton Hall) and was working behind the plate in the majors barely a year later and earning an All-Star nod there in his fourth season. In Year 5, however, he shifted to second base, where he thrived; Biggio repeated as an All, Star, then made five straight Midsummer Classic appearances from 1994-99.
In all, he played 20 seasons with the Astros, finishing with 3,060 hits, 291 home runs, 65.6 bWAR (ninth among all MLB second basemen), five Silver Slugger awards and four Gold Gloves. Biggio was voted into the Hall of Fame by the BWAA in 2015.
Rafael Palmeiro
Selected as an outfielder out of Mississippi State by the Chicago Cubs in 1985, Palmeiro also was in the majors by the following season. He soon moved to first base, with more than 2,000 appearances at the cold corner, but his real position was “bat.” (Yes, he won three Gold Gloves as a first baseman, from 1997-99, but the final one came in a year in which he played just 28 games at first – and 128 at DH. Go figure.)
Over 20 seasons with the Cubs, Texas Rangers and Baltimore Orioles, Palmeiro racked up 71.9 bWAR – the most of any No. 22 pick – on the strength of 3,020 hits and 569 homers. In fact, Palmeiro is one of just seven players in the 3,000/500 club – the others are Hank Aaron, Miguel Cabrera, Willie Mays, Eddie Murray, Albert Pujols and Alex Rodriguez. Of those, three (Aaron, Mays and Murray) are in the Hall, with Cabrera and Pujols seemingly locks in 2029 and 2028, respectively.
Only Palmeiro and A-Rod will be left out, and for the same reason: PEDs. Palmeiro only received a 10-game suspension for steroid use in 2005 – but it came just a few months after he testified against PEDs in front of Congress.
Glen Perkins
Yes, really – of the 10 All-Stars at No. 22, seven are pitchers, but none have been to the Midsummer Classic more than Perkins’ trio of trips. The left-hander was drafted out of the University of Minnesota by his hometown Twins in 2004 and reached the majors in 2006. Although his career totals – 9.0 bWAR, a 3.88 ERA and 504 strikeouts over 624⅓ innings in 409 appearances – aren’t necessarily Hall-worthy, he peaked with three straight All-Star nods from 2013-15, posting a 3.08 ERA with 197 strikeouts in 181⅓ innings of relief for the Twins. (The all-time bWAR leader for a pitcher at No. 22 is Bruce Hurst, with 34.1 and a lone All-Star nod over 15 seasons.)
The “Hey, I know that guy” picks at No. 22
Chet Lemon
The future Tigers All-Star – in 1984, after two ASG nods with the Chicago White Sox – was drafted in 1972 by the Oakland Athletics out of high school in Los Angeles. He debuted in 1975 after a trade to the ChiSox and over the course of his 16 seasons racked up 55.6 bWAR, 215 home runs and 884 RBIs while hitting .273. Although he never won a Gold Glove, a whopping 9.0 bWAR of his total came on defense, the most of any No. 22 pick.
Beau Burrows
The only Tigers No. 22 pick before Saturday, Burrows was drafted out of high school in Texas in 2015. He reached the majors with the Tigers in 2020 and has a career 10.70 ERA in the majors over 17⅔ innings in 11 appearances with the Tigers and Twins, who grabbed him off waivers in June 2021. Burrows is still pitching, however; he entered Friday with a 3.41 ERA in 29 games for the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Triple-A affiliate. Of course, Burrows is probably more notable for a different kind of throwing – he vomited just before his lone 2021 appearance as a Tiger, on June 12. Unfortunately for Burrows, there was no “8 Mile”-esque moment of post-mess triumph; he surrendered four runs in 1⅔ innings before being pulled.
The worst No. 22 picks of all time
Phil Dumatrait
Ignoring the No. 22s who failed to make the majors, we’ll stick with the guys who reached the bigs and flopped. And that includes Dumatrait, drafted by the Red Sox in 2000 out of Bakersfield College. It took the lefty seven years – and a trade to the Cincinnati Reds – to make the majors, though he wasn’t particularly successful, posting a 6.20 ERA with 97 strikeouts and 90 walks over 151 innings with the Red Sox, Twins and Pittsburgh Pirates. Between his stints with the Pirates and Twins, though, Dumatrait had a layover in the Tigers’ organization, posting an unlikely 3.16 ERA over 42⅔ innings with Triple-A Toledo that featured, unfortunately, more walks (18) than strikeouts (17). He finished his big-league career with minus-1.8 bWAR, the second-worst of any No. 22 pick, behind only …
Terry Francona
Yes, before Francona became a star skipper, he was the Expos’ No. 22 pick in 1980 out of the University of Arizona. He, too, rocketed to the majors, with an August 1981 debut (arriving at the Astrodome four innings into a Nolan Ryan start, he was sent in to pinch-hit in the eighth), and posted 0.4 bWAR over 34 games that season. That and a 1984 season in which he slashed .346/.360/.487 over 58 games were the highlights of a 10-season MLB career derailed by knee injuries, as he produced minus-3.0 bWAR with the Expos, Cubs, Reds, Indians and Brewers. His time as a manager, which began with four losing seasons running the Phillies from 1997-2000, was much more successful. In 2004, his first season as Boston Red Sox skipper, he led Boston to its first World Series title since 1918, then won a second in 2007. In 25 seasons as a manager (with the Phillies, Red Sox, Cleveland and the Reds), Francona has 2,075 victories, ranking 11th in MLB history.
And it all started at No. 22.
Ryan Ford is deputy sports editor for the Free Press and has been with Freep Sports since January 2006. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on X (which used to be Twitter, y’know?) @theford and on BlueSky at @theford.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Tigers pick No. 22 in 2026 MLB Draft. Here are the best, worst picks