I get the impression that Spencer Torkelson likes to live life on the edge, or at least that’s how it comes across on the baseball field. The man will go weeks at a time seeing the ball well, getting on base, driving in runners in scoring position, and we start to think to ourselves that an All-Star first baseman is emerging. Then he’ll go a month looking like he did in 2024, starting every single count down 0-2, and if he isn’t striking out, he’s popping up after dipping his shoulder for the millionth time in his relatively short-lived major league career.
Torkelson‘s 2025 season was a success. He was the one player who needed to have a hot spring training and get off to a good start, and that’s exactly what he did. I’ll give him a ton of credit for that. He got on base five times on opening day. The microscope was going to be held up very close to him throughout this season, and he got off to a much-needed great start. Overall, it was a very successful campaign for Spencer Torkelson. He remained healthy and improved in pretty much every area you could’ve hoped for. He has played his way onto this roster for the next several seasons. That might seem like a small step, but considering how many question marks we had about him coming into the 2025 campaign, knowing that he’s going to be a piece is a major accomplishment.
So you have to give Torkelson credit for how he’s overcome some adversity here. He lost his position coming into this season and immediately snatched it back from Colt Keith. That’s all fine and dandy, but I can’t sit here and act like Tork has turned into the player that we wanted him to be. He is not the natural, pure hitter that Tiger fans expected when he was drafted. I understand that paying attention to batting average is a little bit out of style, and I can almost deal with a .240 average if the power were generational. The fact is, Torkelson‘s knowledge of the strike zone just isn’t good enough to warrant having an average that’s that low. The slug is high. When he hits, he often goes for power, but his on-base percentage is underwhelming, and the problems within him are the same ones we complain about with Riley Greene and Kerry Carpenter. The fact that three of your core members in the heart of your lineup all suffer from the same issues is a big reason why Detroit fell apart in the second half.
I don’t believe Torkelson is the piece we hoped he would be, but he's definitely a piece. He’s going to end up having a long major league career just because of his strength at the dish and ability to leave the ballpark. He just leaves me wanting a lot more. I don’t view him as a franchise player, which is what I thought we were getting. Something got lost in the translation. He was very clearly rushed to the big leagues in the hopes that he would come up the same time as Riley Greene. The natural ability has very clearly never left him. He’s an entirely adequate major league first baseman. I’m content with what he is, but when I watch him, it’s hard not to think about what he could’ve been.
FINAL GRADE: B