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Can Tigers’ Spencer Torkelson reach greater heights in 2024?

 

Detroit Tigers’ Spencer Torkelson reacts to hitting a home run against the Cleveland Guardians in the ninth inning of a baseball game, Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)AP

 

 

By Evan Woodbery | ewoodber@mlive.com

Detroit Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said the bar has been raised when it comes to expectations for Spencer Torkelson in 2023.

 

That is perhaps a polite way of saying that the Tigers want him to be good all season, not just the final two months.

 

Torkelson, the No. 1 overall pick in 2020, finished 2023 with a team-high 31 homers and 94 RBIs and was even named Tiger of the Year. It was his coming-out party after a bumpy rookie season in 2022.

 

But expectations are being set even higher for Torkelson in 2024. Even by Torkelson himself.

 

“For me, it’s hard to be super-happy, like I’ve made it,” he said in an interview last month. “I thought it was a good year, but it’s nowhere near what I believe I’m capable of.”

 

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That’s not to say that everything came easy in 2023. Torkelson scuffled at the plate in the first half of the season and struggled to adjust to baseball’s post-shift landscape as a first baseman. But Torkelson did leap the most important first hurdle that every young player must conquer, whether they were drafted first or 300th: He showed he belonged and was here to stay.

 

“When you’re an uber-talented, high-profile player who sort of notable before you even take your first at-bat, that comes with a ton of spotlight and a ton of responsibility,” Hinch said. “It wasn’t always a smooth ride for him.”

 

So Hinch said the first thing he told Torkelson at least season’s exit interview was a simple “congratulations.”

 

“He continued to make adjustments in his process throughout the year and all of a sudden you look up and the scoreboard looked pretty good,” Hinch said. “The numbers he was putting up were pretty impactful. He was hitting in the middle of our order. Teams were targeting him as a real threat. So sometimes you have to open your players’ eyes as to what’s happened and let them know that it’s a job well done.”

 

The league will adjust again in 2024. Hinch has no doubt of it. Torkelson is a middle-of-the-order power threat; his weaknesses will be scrutinized and analyzed by opposing scouting and analytics departments.

 

“The league’s going to audible against him. They’re going to start to pitch him a little differently and they’re going to start challenging him in different ways,” Hinch said. “The key to being a bonafide impact bat is going to be adjusting to those league adjustments.”

 

Torkelson is not having a great spring training in the stat line. This is nothing new. The tradition dates back to his first spring training in 2021 when he went 1-for-27 while striking out 16 times.

 

Torkelson hasn’t homered yet this spring. Remarkably, he has only two homers over four Grapefruit League seasons (166 plate appearances).

 

So don’t expect Torkelson or the Tigers to fret. They’ve been down this road before.

 

And not all of Torkelson’s focus this spring has been at the plate.

 

The Tigers also hope he plays improved defense in 2024.

 

There was once hope that Torkelson could be an above-average defender (the Tigers, after all, originally tried him at third base). But the metrics were ugly in 2023. Torkelson had -11 Defensive Runs Saved in 2023, the worst among all first basemen in baseball.

 

Torkelson said the abolition of the shift made the first baseman’s job harder, as he could no longer rely on the second baseman playing deep onto the grass.

 

“The shift made first base really easy,” he said. “Any ball to my right and I just had to run to first base because Scopie (second baseman Jonathan Schoop) was there. My first instinct on any ball to my right was to just get to the bag. Now I think, ‘We’re going to get that ball.’”

 

With that in mind, Torkelson worked this offseason on improving his range to the right side.

 

“We do want him to address some things on defense,” Hinch said. “We do want him to continue on the path that caused August and September to be pretty eye-opening to a lot of people. He has a ton of talent and he’s getting comfortable with what he has to do to be good. Our job is to now raise the bar another inch and see how he responds to that.”

 

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