Clues to what the Tigers will do with their first — and perhaps second — picks in the Sunday-Monday MLB Draft are right there, in those first two drafts headed by Tigers generals Rob Metzler and Mark Conner.

Max Clark.

Kevin McGonigle.

Bryce Rainer.

Max Anderson.

Four quality hitters, three of them preps, and all taken no deeper than No. 45 overall (Anderson, from the University of Nebraska) in the Tigers’ 2023 and 2024 amateur-talent hunts.

The Tigers will pick 24th in the draft’s first round (6 p.m. Sunday, ESPN and MLB Network), which is new, back-row territory for a team that messed up its typically early turns by making last year’s playoffs. The Tigers aren’t complaining.

They also will pick quickly again, at No. 34, thanks to a Competitive Balance bonus-prize received by way of their standing within MLB in terms of market size and revenues.

One probability escorting the Tigers into their Sunday night foray (first evening of the All-Star break) is heightened by those four gents above:

Figure on hitters being grabbed quickly by the new Tigers draft kings (they were hired almost immediately when Scott Harris took over the franchise’s front office in October 2022) who seem to agree with conventional wisdom that hitting is best-found in early rounds and pitching can be added later.

National outlets keeping score of Tigers scouts’ appearances (Baseball America, MLB Pipeline, ESPN, etc.) have acknowledged the Tigers are looking seriously at the following position players:

• Kayson Cunningham (turns 19 on Sunday), shortstop, 5-10, 182, LH batter, Johnson High, San Antonio: Here is a hitter whose bat-to-ball skills are reminiscent of what the Tigers saw two years ago in McGonigle. Cunningham is not projected to stick at shortstop and more likely will move to second base.

Slater de Brun, 18, outfielder, 5-9, 192, LH batter, Summit High, Bend, Oregon: All the skills, beginning with his bat, you want in a prep player. Not surprisingly, he is a Vanderbilt commit. The Tigers might find de Brun is long gone by the time they pick. Even if available, they may be more sold on Cunningham.

• Coy James, 18, shortstop, 6-0, 185, RH batter, Davie County High, Advance, North Carolina: He is a hard commit to Ole Miss with more power potential than the above gents. Had a bit of a rough 2024 summer that dropped his stock significantly. But note that Rainer’s 2023 was a bit off-key and didn’t stop the Tigers last July.

• Josh Hammond, 18, shortstop, 6-1, 210, RH batter, Wesleyan Christian Academy, High Point, North Carolina: More power than Cunningham, with lesser contact skill. Great arm, thus a move to third base because of his body-type seems inevitable. Wake Forest has Hammond wrapped up if he weren’t to sign.

• Xavier Neyens, 18, third base, 6-4, 210, LH batter, Mount Vernon (Washington) High: Big left-handed power with shortstop-grade defense and an equally impressive arm makes Neyens one of those top-25 draft probabilities.

• Jaden Fauske, 18, catcher, 6-3, 200, LH batter, Nazareth Academy, La Grange Park, Illinois: Considered for now a catcher, but chances of him moving to corner outfield are regarded as strong. Good bat with reasonable power potential. LSU is waiting for him to decide against a MLB contract, but likely will be disappointed.

• Dax Kilby, 18, shortstop, 6-2, 190, LH batter, Newnan (Georgia) High: Another left-handed stick who has a bit of Cunningham/McGonigle about him, if McGonigle comparisons can be forgiven. As with so many prospects, playing shortstop in high school and sticking there through pro ball can be different realities altogether. Clemson is his college commitment.

• Josh Owens, 18, shortstop/outfielder, 6-3, 185, LH batter, Providence Academy, Jonesborough, Tennessee: Once again, we have a left-handed prep hitter whose upside could toss him into the first round. Not on a power level with Hammond, but MLB teams’ body-projection scientists often see a future ceiling that isn’t apparent today.

• Nick Becker, 18, shortstop, 6-4, 190, RH batter, Don Bosco Prep, Ramsey, New Jersey: Becker is from Thiells, New York, and has the kind of hitting makeup the Tigers like — that is, he’s a hard-contact batter who knows the strike zone. A lot to appreciate here for a University of Virginia commit who might be higher on the Tigers board than some suspect.

The Tigers, of course, haven’t breathed a word about any of the above, or how their draft board has shaken out this week during marathon sessions at Lakeland, Florida.

It’s always possible they could choose a player who blindsides the prognosticators who have been taking attendance at games and tend to know what teams are most interested in particular players.

It’s also important to focus as much on who the Tigers grab at No. 34 overall as No. 24. It was two years ago that the Tigers snagged McGonigle with the draft’s 37th overall turn.

The Tigers, as much as can be deduced today, haven’t yet missed with their earliest picks. And note, again, that whether it was Clark (third overall), McGonigle (37th), Anderson (45th), or Rainer (11th), bats have ruled.

Could pitching slip into the early mix?

Of course. A year ago, the Tigers, with their first second-round turn (49), nabbed right-handed prep prodigy Owen Hall. They followed up with another prep star, this time left-handed, in Ethan Schiefelbein (72).

But the trend, the science, the percentages, that point to hitters being taken early in the MLB Draft and pitchers — in general — selected later, all further suggest bats will be grabbed in those initial Tigers turns. That’s particularly evident in a team’s track record under Metzler and Conner.

As for budget, the Tigers naturally know that with later draft slots due to better teams in Detroit, their MLB-authorized bonus pool also has lessened: $10,990,800. It is middle-of-the-pack and not a sum MLB allows a team to exceed without flak from Commissioner Rob Manfred’s office, as well as heavy taxes, and if a team is particularly naughty, forfeiture of draft picks.

In any event, the Tigers won’t be finished Sunday. They pick 62nd (second round) and 98th (third round) as the draft’s first night wraps up, with rounds 4-20 set for Monday.

Monday figures for MLB scouts and draft commanders to be one of the least-looked-forward-to days of their devoted careers.

It will be exhaustive and frenzied. It will mark an end to the old and far more reasonable format that saw rounds 3-10 staged on Monday following the Sunday night opener, with rounds 11-20 on Tuesday.

Now — all MLB shopping will be completed within 24 hours. Picks will need to be made in a relative instant, with one great anxiety accompanying scouts: Are they sure such-and-such a player can be signed for a particular amount of cash without risking that the player opts for his college offer, or for returning to his college team?

That’s where it will get hairy.

That’s where Manfred’s 2020 directive that the draft move from its old early-June date to All-Star week gets doubly complicated — in making what were three enormously challenging days even more complex and risky, jamming 20 rounds into two days.

But that’s the situation for everyone, for all 30 teams, all of which are hoping to turn their most studious dice-rolls into eventual productive roster pieces.

Gentlemen, start your draft boards.