The Tigers are expected to finalize a deal with No. 1 overall pick Spencer Torkelson prior to the resumption of training camps, Jason Beck of MLB.com writes. Lynn Henning of the Detroit News tweets that Torkelson is expected to sign his deal as soon as Sunday and will likely receive a bonus slightly north of his $8,415,300 slot value. MLB.com’s Jim Callis notes that the Tigers can pay as much $8,441,985 without being penalized with the loss of future picks.
Torkelson is regarded as one of the best bats to come out of the draft in decades. The 21-year-old posted an otherworldly .337/.463/.729 with 54 home runs, 33 doubles and a 110-to-104 BB/K ratio in 628 plate appearances as Arizona State’s regular first baseman. The 20-year-old slugger was long the favorite to go No. 1 overall in this year’s draft and is viewed as a fast-moving bat who could be a fixture in the middle of a big league lineup for years to come. Baseball America has already ranked him as the game’s No. 11 overall prospect on its updated Top 100 list, and Torkelson now checks in at No. 38 on the updated rankings from FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen.
While it’s unlikely that Torkelson will be brought to the big leagues this season, of course, Beck notes that the club is still at least considering Torkelson for its 60-player pool that must be submitted to MLB by Sunday evening. Placing Torkelson in that pool would afford him some developmental opportunities in the rebooted Spring Training and then with non-active-roster players throughout the duration of the relaunched 2020 season. Torkelson can obviously be placed on that list without being added to the 40-man roster and wouldn’t get service time simply for being in the 60-player pool, so there’s little downside for the Tigers when it comes to including him.
Tigers GM Al Avila announced earlier this week that the club had signed Competitive Balance pick Daniel Cabrera, and the club has also announced deals with second-round pick Dillon Dingler, third-round pick Trei Cruz, fourth-rounder Gage Workman and fifth-round selection Colt Keith. Torkelson is the lone unsigned player among the bunch, but it sounds as though he’ll put pen to paper and officially begin his pro career in the near future.
Tork Bomb
Do it.
This pleases me.
His bat was probably Torked.. ♂️
yea. we all knew that. come on guys and gals (if you have any),wouldnt want the wokeist crew to come here and talk about sexism now, this is not journalism. ill probably wash my hands today. thats how unnewsworthy this stuff is
Dumb question, but how do these signing bonuses work? Does he sign the contract and then get a check for $8 million? Is it spread out over a number of years?
Not a dumb question! Because of this year’s shortened draft and team revenue losses, he’ll be paid $100K up front, then 50% of the remainder on July 1, 2021 and the other 50% on July 1, 2022.
I was wondering this as well, thank you. It would be interesting to see how much money has been paid out in bonuses to guys who never sniffed the majors! It must be astronomical!
best question I’ve read anywhere in what feels like months
This article explains it.
blessyouboys.com/2020/6/26/21302544/report-spencer…
Tigers tigers burning bright
In all the ball parks at night
Your hitting great your fielding adroit
So why no pennants for Detroit?
You sir are no Blake
I like it, but I would add « late » at night, it seems like you’re in need of another word.
You cruise around the big league parks
With bats that fairly give off sparks
Mad magazine.
Tigers, Tigers, burning bright,
in the ballparks of the night,
your pitching’s good, your field adroit,
so why no pennants for Detroit?
You blaze around the big league parks
with bats that fairly give off sparks.
But when they total up the score,
you’ve lost again to Baltimore.
You start out brave with each new year,
with stalwart hearts, you know no fear.
Then from on high, while sitting pretty,
you blow four games at Kansas City.
The Cleveland Indians go to work,
they beat you good, so does New York.
When Boston adds a mortal blow,
all you can cry’s “look out below!”.
Before the season’s finally done,
you’ve been outplayed by Washington.
Amid the heated pennant race,
you fight to cling to seventh place.
Tigers, Tigers, burning bright,
in the ballparks of the night,
some day the fans will get their fill,
and ship the team to Louisville.
Do you have the issue, I could only remember the first 4 lines.?
It was a Mad Magazine issue from the early ’60’s. I no longer have it. I had to google search it. My older brother and I were huge baseball nerds growing up and we would say the poem when we were goofing around outside. I remembered it as “your pitching’s FAIR your field adroit”…. other than that, it seems right
Any relation to Rod, of Rod Torkelson’s Armada featuring Herman Menderchuk?
Nice Kids in the Hall reference but turns out it’s actually Rod Torfulson.
Oops
Just Get ‘er done Al!!!
Would love to see him as one of the guys added to the taxi squad.
Glad to see they signed Cabrera as well.
I’m also thrilled the Tigers signed Miguel Cabrera to that franchise crippling deal!!
You are daft. Detroit has some of the lowest payroll commitment of any MLB team. Nothing about the Cabrera deal is crippling. Casual fans like you are the worst.
Cabrera’s contract isn’t crippling. He isn’t blocking anyone. They are in rebuild mode. He is still a huge fan favorite. That money would not have gone to anyone else except the owners. So, if you are mad Cabrera got it, then you must be sorry for the Illich’s.
The Angels are a different story. They want to compete now and Pujols money could have gone to Cole or a few other pitchers. He is taking time away from Ohtani and Thaiss. Angel fans are there to see Trout and see the team win.
It’s not a crippling contract. It was ignorant to give a 33 year old an 8 year contract though. If they hadn’t given him that contract he would have left after the 2015 season. He had a great season. He was injured and missed about 40 games for the first time in his career. He still led the league in hitting at .338/ .440/ .534 and was 11th in MVP votes. So he might have gotten a pretty decent deal. Nothing like he signed, but a really nice deal. His next year was really good too. He hit.316/ .393/ 563 with 38 home runs and 108 rbi. But the next year he began to really fall off due to playing while injured.
So the Tigers gave Cabrera an 8 year deal worth $240 mil and got 1 great year, 1 terrible year and 2 meh year. (The last 2 were meh, because he was hurt quite a bit. When he was on the field, he was a slightly better than average player )
They got a pass this year with the shortened season, so 3 more years before it’s over.
He has an additional 2 years option if he is top 10 in MVP voting each year. So, if there are 4 voters out there that hate the Tigers, they will give him 4 first place votes and end up giving him a couple more years.
I wonder if Miggy would offer them a million bucks each for a vote? $4 mil to get $30 mil? Hmmm
I’ve taken the signing bonus reported by Lynn Henning and included it in a chart showing the signing bonuses paid by the Tigers this season for their six drafted players.
Tork would be the first player ever drafted at No 1 overall to sign for above slot bonus money.
blessyouboys.com/2020/6/26/21302544/report-spencer…