Bryce Rainer spent his weekend leading into the MLB Draft watching, among other things, the Tigers make back-to-back comeback wins over the Dodgers. The lifelong Californian did so, admittedly, as a Dodgers fan.

He had no idea at the time that the Tigers would be ringing his phone hours later to make him their newest shortstop prospect.

“I would be lying if I said I wasn't watching both games and was wondering how in the hell the Dodgers lost both of those games,” he admitted. “But, you know, I think I'm going to have to change my point of view on that now.”

Maybe things happen for a reason.

The Tigers have spent years looking for a long-term solution at shortstop, from trading for Jose Iglesias in 2013 to signing Javier Báez as a free agent in 2021 to drafting Kevin McGonigle last summer. With Rainer, Detroit’s top pick in Sunday’s MLB Draft, they might have their best answer yet.

While the Tigers took a best-player-available approach this year, as in most previous years, team officials were likely delighted when Rainer, a potential two-way talent from Harvard-Westlake High School in Los Angeles, was still available at 11th overall. He was MLB Pipeline’s 10th-ranked Draft prospect, and the second-highest ranked high-school player. But in a college-heavy Draft, the Tigers -- who were linked to several high-school players this year under a scouting director with a history of taking top high-school talents in the first round -- found the intersection of pure talent and organization fit.

• Get to know No. 11 Draft pick Bryce Rainer

The Tigers also selected RHP Owen Hall out of Edmond North High School (Oklahoma) with the No. 49 overall pick in the second round. Then they took southpaw Ethan Schiefelbein out of Corona Senior High School (California) with the No. 72 overall pick in Competitive Balance Round B.

The Tigers had been tied to another prep shortstop, Konnor Griffin, in several mock drafts, with Rainer projected to go in the top 10. But when the Pirates selected Griffin at No. 9, followed by the Nationals selecting Wake Forest shortstop Seaver King, the Tigers reaped the benefit.

• The next Seager? No. 11 pick is ready to make his own name

“When you’re picking at 11, you never know for sure how the board is going to unfold,” general manager Jeff Greenberg said. “We were hopeful he would be there, and extremely excited when he was.”

Said assistant GM Rob Metzler: “We prepared to be surprised, and the outcome was very positive for us.”

Whether or not it caught the Tigers by surprise, it certainly caught Rainer by surprise.

“Honestly, I did not think it was going to be the Tigers,” he said. “We had some ideas, and the Draft's crazy. Crazy things happen. Time went on, getting phone calls. Then it was like, Tigers. And I was like, 'Alright, let's go. Looks like I'm going to be a Tiger.'”

It was a plot twist in a career that has already had a few. After all, Rainer was arguably the top pitching prospect in the high school Class of 2024 … until he wasn’t.

Aiding Harvard-Westlake to its second CIF Southern Section Division I title in school history, Rainer finished his freshman season with a 9-0 record, along with 74 strikeouts and a 1.46 ERA in 55 2/3 innings. When combining that with his .392 batting average and 13 RBIs, he took home MaxPreps National Freshman of the Year honors, appearing to be one of the nation’s premier pitchers to watch.

In an effort to protect Rainer’s right arm from wear and tear, Harvard-Westlake and Rainer’s family collaborated to decide that he would not pitch as a sophomore, which seemed to further suggest that Rainer’s future was as a pitcher. But the rest of his high school career only leaned in the other direction. With Rainer pitching sporadically in his junior and senior seasons, and with his prowess at the plate only continuing to improve (including a .505 average as a senior), it became evident that scouts were envisioning him as a shortstop.

“There honestly wasn't really ever a time where I realized, 'Oh, I'm good as a hitter now. I'm going to try to get drafted.' That's what I thought I was, even though there was kind of a consensus that my pitching side was better,” Rainer said. “I always thought my hitting side was better. Going into this offseason/spring, it was kind of a bet on myself, like, 'Alright, they think I'm going to be a pitcher. I'm going to try to be a hitter now.'”

MLB Pipeline ranks Rainer with at least a 50 on the 20-to-80 scouting scale in each of the five tools: contact, power, running, throwing and fielding. Based on his taller frame and his status as a left-handed hitter, Rainer has received Corey Seager comparisons often, a lofty standard to meet given that the latter is already a four-time All-Star and a two-time World Series champion at age 30.

“For as big of a body that he has, he has excellent body control, extremely smooth mover,” amateur scouting director Mark Conner said. “His feet are probably one of the best in the class at shortstop. So projecting him out, definitely has a chance to stay long term at shortstop.”

Rainer committed to college ball at Texas, but strongly hinted at a deal over the $5,712,100 slot value to turn pro.

“Earlier in the Draft, there were some under-slots, there were some slots,” Rainer said. “Everyone’s Draft’s hectic. Crazy things happened. I got some phone calls. I’m not going to go into detail about what was discussed in those, but I would say … yeah, you could assume that.”

The Tigers would not confirm.

“Given the Draft just happened, there’s still a process that’s going to have to play out before these guys officially sign their contracts,” Greenberg said.

With Rainer going in the first round, he’ll simply be continuing what’s become the standard from his powerhouse high school. Current MLB hurlers Max Fried and Lucas Giolito and Tigers starting pitcher Jack Flaherty were all first-round Draft picks out of Harvard-Westlake, and they overlapped for one year of high school in 2012 (though Giolito missed almost that entire season with a right elbow injury). Notably, the trio each started on Opening Day for their team in ‘21.

With the aforementioned trio, along with current Cubs outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong, the Wolverines had four players drafted in the first round out of high school since 2010 before Rainer -- twice as many as any other high school in that span. Rainer has continued that legacy.

"I think Bryce is more than capable of being a top-five pick and a kid that goes to the big leagues in the next four or five years,” Crow-Armstrong told reporters in the week leading up to the Draft. “And he’s got the attitude for it. … Now, it’s just his turn to kind of find his way in the pro ball setting and get beat up a little bit, but then have the opportunity to show everybody who Bryce Rainer is.

“He’s really, really, really talented. Better than me at that age. Not even close. Not defensively, but he can hit, and if he wanted to go try the two-way thing, I think he’d have a good chance of doing that. Talent-wise, he’s got it, for sure."

Add Rainer to the Tigers’ first-round picks from last year, center fielder Max Clark and infielder McGonigle -- who’s mostly currently playing shortstop at Single-A Lakeland but whom some evaluators project to move to second base on his way up the system -- and the Tigers have the makings of their potential next core up the middle.