Spencer Torkelson, the former number one overall pick of the amateur draft, has made the Tigers opening day roster, per Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press (via Twitter). The team announced his official promotion via Twitter. Torkelson is the fifth-ranked prospect in the game per Baseball America, and fourth-ranked prospect overall by MLB.com and Baseball Prospectus.
The news comes, perhaps not uncoincidentally, on the same day that Riley Greene, Detroit’s other top position player prospect, has been announced out to start the year with a foot fracture. Greene is perhaps the more important of the two, given his defensive prominence as a center fielder, but it will be Torkelson with the first opportunity to establish himself in Detroit’s lineup.
Still, Torkelson’s quick rise through the system is impressive. The 22-year-old was the top pick in the draft out of Arizona State in the June 2020 draft, not even two years ago. In his one pro season, Torkelson rose from High-A, through Double-A to the top development level in the sport, playing 40 games in Triple-A and hitting .231/.350/.531 line across 177 plate appearances. Across all three levels, Torkelson posted an impressive .267/.383/.552 line over 530 plate appearances.
Wow, nice for Torkelson.
ROY pick
Telling you, white Sox vs. tigers is gonna be fun, man….
Agreed. It’s a fairly even matchup.
We will see buddy.
Not yet, grasshopper, be patient.
Sox have better pitching and bullpen, but the gap isn’t as wide as some pundits think. This may be the season they dominate the Tigers for awhile.
*may be the last year…
Very Funny.
In 2021 Season, the Tigers had one bad month April 2021.
From May through September 2021 the Tigers were 69-63.
.A very respectable record for a rebuilding team.
The Tigers and White Sox played to a draw the other 5 months of the season.
The Tigers are even better in 2022.
It is a great rivalry.
Tigers v White Sox are probably splitting the season Series in 2022.
ChiSox self destructing.
Lets go Sundevils!
I had predicted Braves/White Sox but this could change everything on the AL side…
Would’ve been so much sweeter to come up with Greene. Congrats regardless.
With Hunter Greene making the Reds opening day roster and now Spencer Torkelson making the Tigers hopefully we start to see a change with more and more top prospects breaking camp with the big league club and getting their shot to make an impact in the majors. It’s a win win for all of baseball if a few of these top prospects can succeed and usher in a whole new era of talent.
Except it isn’t a win if the team loses a year control because of 2 weeks. Or did that change with the new CBA?
Yes, I do believe the new CBA has eased some of the restrictions on bringing the young kids up.
If they break camp and finish in the top 3 of ROY, the team gets an extra draft pick per new agreement
Wrong.
It only changes if they finish in the top two for ROY.
But don’t get the extra year? I think I’d rather the extra season over a pick that could bomb.
Bummed we won’t have Tork n Greene to start. Real excited to see how these 2 play.
Yes pretty sure that if Tork made it Greene was going to be there starting center fielder bad luck fracturing his foot.
Now to see if the Mariners do the same with Julio 😉
Hopefully they bring Julio up to start the season. Stick Kelenic in LF and Haniger in right. Should be a good OF especially if Kelenic can add onto what he did at the end of last season.
IMO, the Tigers would need a lot of things to go right for them to overtake the Sox. Definitely not a Sox fan, but they are poised for a run at the WS this season.
The Tigers played the White Sox very tough last year and came close to splitting the season series especially in you take out the terrible April the 2021 Tigers had.
The Tigers could be sneaky good this season with that crop of young guys. Could also flip miserably but I wouldn’t be surprised to see them finish second in that division.
Key to the Tigers season will be if their young pitchers (Mize, Skubal and Manning) take the next step and improve upon last year. Their defense is much stronger w Barnhart and Baez which should help the pitching. And with Greene back in early June CF will be that much more improved. Looking to be a promising season for Motown if everything falls into place
Skubal looking real good.
Good job, baseball! Play your young players.
Good news for baseball fans and the MLB product in general!
Idiotic.
First of all, no one else of any merit was playing first base, so it was obvious what Al was going to do.
And it is idiotic.
Remember, if the superduperfife was running the team both Greene and Torque would have been amongst the first cut…..because those are spots on the active roster that could be used by trade chips….. same with the rookie pitchers… that’s 10+ trade chips, because for each open roster spot, you have the mlb player to trade and one or two more for the same spot on minor league contracts.
In the Superfife world, Greene would not have been injured, because I would tell him, he is good enough, exlpain the plan and tell him to take it easy. There was no reason for him to extend himself in a ST game trying to prove himself, he had already made it.
As far as I am concerned, Al and Chris are not very intelligent people or they really don’t care about Tiger baseball other than to sell the KoolAid and Hinch is almost as arrogant as I am.
Chris Illich, I challenge you and Al.
What do you think the Tiger record will be at the end of April?
Under .500 Mr. Illich? 6-8 wins?
Then you should hire me for the job.
Because I AM A REAL Tiger fan.
“…Hinch is almost as arrogant as I am.”
No one is close to as arrogant as you are, dumbfife.
Really?
Lol so now teams should just hire fans because they’re “real fans”? This seems…. Idiotic
I judge that as arrogant as this take is, it is spot-on. Absolutely true that Greene should not be going all out in ST and getting injured! And this is also true about the trade chips/roster spots…
He got injured batting. How do you not go all out when batting? Is he supposed to just stand in the box and do nothing?
You’re a loser is what you are
I hope he hits 47 home runs
Very risky move on the Tigers part. Forget about the point of starting his “service clock”, the kid needed more minor league seasoning.
Everybody has the right to their opinion. Yours just happens to be wrong.
VErY rISkY
Sorry, I forgot. A congratulations is in order.
Congratulations Mr. Torkelson!
Tigers need to go for it and the other First Base options were not good. With the universal DH now in play there is zero reason for Cabrera to even have a glove in his locker so this was the right call
Tigers will be better, but injuries will be big.
Not much back up in position players
Tigers should of had more promising position players in their system. The other guys are probably a year or two away from reaching MLB. Greene and Torkelson are going to be studs no doubt about it, but you never want to count on only 2 position players to turn a team around as one of them could end up getting hurt. Teams should always accumulate multiple pitchers and position players when going through their rebuilds.
The Tigers have had some very good drafts and international signings. Their farm system has some very good talent and is better than a lot of people think.