Tigers select outfielder Akil Baddoo in Rule 5 draft

Photo by Brace Hemmelgarn/Minnesota Twins/Getty ImagesWell the Detroit Tigers surprised us in Thursday’s Rule 5 draft. Expected to take a pitcher, the club instead went back to the outfielder well hoping to repeat their relatively successful 2018 selection of Victor Reyes. General manager Al Avila plucked Minnesota Twins outfielder Akil Baddoo with the third pick in the draft.

Baddoo is 22 years old, and hasn’t played above the A-ball level yet, so he can only be viewed as a very long term project, meaning the Tigers are going to have to stash him on the bench in 2021. That’s a bit frustrating in a year when the free agent market is bound to be stacked with cheap major league talent. On the…