I feel like we’ve barely heard Spencer Torkelson‘s name in spring training this year. He’s someone that I’ve given so little thought to that I hadn’t even looked up what his numbers were. After looking, it makes sense why not much has been said. His numbers are relatively pedestrian, but I think, given the season that he had last year, he’s bought himself a fair amount of goodwill with the fan base. I just found it to be an interesting juxtaposition because it wasn’t that long ago that Spencer Torkelson was the most analyzed player in this organization. I remember his early years in spring training when we would analyze every swing and miss, every strikeout, and we’d feel optimistic after every home run.
I don’t think that it was necessarily too much. These are the expectations that come with being the number one overall pick in the draft. Torkelson was marketed as one of the best bats to come out of college in a long time, and unfortunately, his struggles turned out not to be fluky. Even with his solid year a year ago, he's still considered a polarizing player on this team, but I think he may benefit from what’s been a relatively quiet offseason.
A year ago at this time, we didn’t know if Spencer Torkelson was even going to make the opening day roster. We had a pretty good idea because last year was the year he really broke out in spring, but coming into that offseason, he had lost his first-base job to Colt Keith. He quickly won it back after a solid spring and a great April, but this is really the first time in Torkelson’s career in which he hasn’t had much to worry about in the offseason. The first base position is going to be his. He’s a veteran in this Clubhouse now, and the only way he loses his spot on this team is if he plays his way out of the starting lineup as he did in 2024.
I’ll be honest: I will always consider Torkelson something of a disappointment relative to the expectations we had for him. This was a guy that I expected to be someone who could lead the league in home runs and RBIs at some point in his career, and while he has put up good slugging numbers at points, it just doesn’t feel like he’s developed into the overall hitter that we expected him to be. That said, you have to step back and look at the team's overall outlook. This team is bigger than just one player, and while Torkelson may never be THEE guy, I think some players work better being one of the guys.
I think somewhere in the process, something went sideways with Spencer Torkelson‘s development. I would imagine that this happened late in the Avila era. I think you could make a strong argument that he was brought into the system too quickly, and while it’s been a long time since he was drafted, those early years are very important in a player's development. Sometimes you can lose something you can’t quite get back.
Torkelson has never lost his natural ability, but his process in general knowledge of the strike zone is something that probably took a hit as the organization accelerated him through the minor leagues. Generally speaking, what we saw from Torkelson last year is what we can expect him to be for quite a while. There may be that random 40 home run anomaly year in him somewhere. If it does exist, hopefully, we see it in 2026, but for the time being, I think it’s to the benefit that he’s been flying under the radar.