The Tigers announced to reporters, including Chris McCosky of the Detroit News, that first baseman Spencer Torkelson has been optioned to Triple-A Toledo. The corresponding move will be announced later, as today’s game was postponed due to rain, meaning the Tigers don’t play again until after the All-Star break.
The first overall selection of the 2020 draft, Torkelson immediately shot onto prospect lists, with Baseball America ranking him #5 overall in 2021. Torkelson did nothing to diminish his prospect status last year, as he mashed at High-A, then got promoted to Double-A and Triple-A all in one year. Across those three levels, he hit 30 home runs, 29 double and a pair of triples, producing an overall batting line of .267/.383/.552. He walked in 14.5% of his plate appearances and struck out in 21.5% of them.
Coming into 2022, he was again slotted into the #5 spot on BA’s prospect list and seemed poised for big things after cracking the Tigers’ Opening Day roster. Unfortunately, he hasn’t yet been able to translate his immense hitting ability to the big leagues. Through his first 298 plate appearances, he has hit just .197/.282/.295, resulting in a 68 wRC+. Put another way, that’s production 32% worse than league average.
Torkelson is still capable of putting a charge into the ball, as his max exit velocity is considered to be in the 80th percentile, according to Statcast. However, his hard hit percentage is just 39th percentile and his barrel percentage just 37th, suggesting that he’s not lining up the ball with consistency.
While it’s surely a disappointing result for the Tigers and their fans, it’s worth remembering that there’s still plenty of time for Torkelson to turn things around. He only spent one year in the minors before the aggressive push by the club to add him to the big league team. He’s still just 22 years old, turning 23 in August. Since the club is 37-55 and has no hope of a postseason push this year, they can afford to take whatever steps they think give Torkelson the best chance of long-term success, which they think will be some time in the minors.
Manager A.J. Hinch spoke to reporters about the decision today (Twitter links from Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic and Jason Beck of MLB.com), saying that they want to get him back on track away from the scrutiny that comes from being in the big leagues. “It’s much less spotlight to do it in Triple A than it is to continue to do this in the big leagues,” Hinch said. “He’s too good a hitter for us to just continue to let him grind at this level and not reach the desired results.”
As for the timeline or Torkelson’s return, it seems like that will be dependent on his results. “I told Tork it could be 10 days, it could be two weeks, could be a month. It doesn’t matter how long it takes to get him back to feeling good.” The length of time of this optional assignment could potentially have impacts for Torkelson down the line in terms of arbitration and free agency. Since he made the club’s Opening Day roster, he was in line to earn a full year of MLB service time, setting him up to reach arbitration after the 2024 campaign and free agency after 2027. A major league season is 187 days long, but it takes just 172 days on a big league roster for a player to earn a full year of service time. If Torkelson misses more than two weeks of action, he could come up short of the one-year mark here in 2022, therefore pushing his free agency back by a year. Players also reach arbitration after three years, though it’s also possible to qualify as a Super Two player, with the top 22% of players between two and three years service time being eligible. That means the target moves slightly each year, oscillating from 2.115 to 2.146 since 2009.
Bout a month too late…hopefully he regains his confidence and swing.
Try 2
Two months
Probably the same people that woulda cried service time manipulation had they kept him down at the start of the year though lol.
Hardly, I said it was dumb. I have the common sense to know 238 in 40 games at aaa is not an indication of readiness. Nor, does it make sense to rush him.
Took them long enough. Kid has no confidence right now
Remember Austin Riley of the Braves. Same kinda talk, move him up & down, he can’t hit, he can hit, blah, blah blah.
The Braves stuck with him & he’s a monster!
Stick with this dude, not everything is NOW NOW NOW.
If he’s even close to another Austin Riley, you’ll be happy that you endured his worst.
No one is saying that but it was obvious in late May & early June. Could have been down & back up!
Confidence? They gave him every chance to pull out of it…he was the one who decided to sink and not swim.
It’s ok…. even when trout come up he was a bag of balls… he got sent down…come back the next season and raked.
(no i am not saying he is Trout)
What took them so long?
They probably didn’t want to be accused of service time manipulation. This kid was not ready for the majors, but the Tigers folded under the pressure to promote him at the beginning of the year.
Of all of the big time prospects that started with the big league club, only Julio Rodriguez has actually been really ready. And even he had a slow April and May. Witt has not been bad, but I don’t think he is exactly setting the world on fire either.
Witt has done fine.
Which is why I said Witt has not been bad.
Not all but some of Julio’s problems were the atrocious strikes called against him. It wasn’t only one crew it was numerous crews. Not being a fan boy but balls that were 2-3 balls out of SZ were called.
Servias finally went ballistic got tossed from a game and wrote a letter. The calls stopped and Julio started to be much better at the plate. He took the bad calls in stride and didn’t let the calls upset him
Turns out Big League baseball is hard
Wow. Super disappointing. Hope he can put it all together
Talk about disappointing… you ever get one of those boxes of taco shells home only to find the shells were crushed? Only thing worse is cheese falling off your pizza. Anyway, have a nice day, Taco.
You’re talking like Jill Biden now.
Ok, Ivana.
Reminds me of when small business owners cry about their failures. Funny how personal responsibility goes out the window when the shoe is on the other foot.
Ya, but you look like Donald Trump’s ridiculous toupee. =))
reminds of when people on public assistance cry about their plight and point fingers at hard working business owners doing something they could never even attempt in their wettest dreams.
I’m just here to talk about taco shells… take your political agendas elsewhere.
Our “political agendas” are no more off topic than your taco shells.
My Hispanic friends were offended. They said they were breakfast burritos not tacos. They are soft on the outside and filled with yummy stuff not hard and everything falls out after a bite.
Taco meh. Prefer cheese on a cracker. Putting on the ritz
Heck of a rebuild.
Knew they were in deep trouble when they had to suck up to Baez and give him big bucks along with the silly opt out to be their team leader.
The White Sox rebuild was bad in the way they came out of it.
The Royals rebuild was fine with position players. But they don’t know how to handle pitchers.
This Tigers rebuild is in line with the Phillies rebuild….maybe worse…..at least the Phils got a 1B, a few decent pitchers, and traded some prospects for Realmuto.
The ChiSox radically changed the direction of their rebuild and then hired a manager who had been in retirement for a decade.
The Phillies radically changed directions twice.
The Tigers are cursed with extreme owner interference. This time, they are for sale and they listen to the media more than baseball people. The same thing happened when Randy Smith was GM.
Would have liked to see Kerry Carpenter get reps at 1B in AAA leading up to this. He has earned a look in the majors.
Kerry is absolutely MASHING in triple AAA, would love to see him on the roster at some point, hopefully it would be him or Jaime Westbrook who comes up.
I doubt that Carpenter is given the call. He has only 7 games at the AAA level. Furthermore, he’s listed as a right fielder. Not sure who they move to make room for yet another outfielder.
Carpenter has played in 17 games with 15rbi and 1100 ops. He’s also played first before in the minors.
He’s played 17 games in AAA and has been just as good if not better than he was in AA. I said I would have liked to see him get reps at 1B. I know he won’t get called up to replace Tork, since he hasn’t.
You’re right. I think I was referring to his homers in AAA.
But, Kody Clemens is expected to take his spot, according to the pundits.
He has 3 hr at aaa. Why do you just make things up that are completely off base?
You are what’s wrong with America – just making things up and taking pride in your right to be ignorant. Learn some humility.
3 HR’s in 55 at bats. Plus hitting over .360. Don’t think he is making things up
aaa is off monday thru Thursday . so it wasnt just to get him more ABs. This team is so snakebit on #1 draft picks. Nothing to show for the last 40 years but Verlander and the 2 we traded to get Cabrera
They should fire the batting coach Scott Coolbaugh, he has done nothing to help the Tigers, Akil was doing well in the minors came up and now he has regressed. Hopefully, Torkelson will get better hitting advice in the minors, return swinging a hot bat, and ignore any advice from Scott..
Scott Coolbaugh is the guy that saved Nelson Cruz’s career. I think he’s a genius.
Oh so HE’S the one who got him the roids?
Maybe it has something to do with the fact that pitching in the majors is MUCH tougher to deal with than pitching in the minors. That is why there have been so many AAAA hitters in the history of the game. Sometimes guys just aren’t good enough to hit in the bigs.
Finally. His numbers in the minors were never that great which suggests he needs more time
Some are so critical. So he struggled in his first taste of MLB pitching at the ripe old age of 22 when he had all of 40 games at AAA coming into the season. He’ll be fine. Still could be any kind.
He skyrocketed through the minor leagues. Not only was it a short stint at Triple-A, but it was also his first ever season as a professional baseball player.
This is partially the result of the deal where prospects that do well earn extra draft choices for their teams. A lot of teams accelerated the development calendar hoping to earn those draft [pick(s). Once they fall out of contention for any rookie prizes, they will get demoted to save service time.
Spencer Torkelson at least played pretty good defensively. In truth, no one on the Tigers is hitting. Furthermore, Miguel Cabrera’s swollen face appears like he’s fallen off the wagon.
He certainly looks rather old for just a 39 year old.
Damn. You’re right. Miggy is still a Millennial!
Certainly a very good ball player who was a ‘victim’ of being rushed to the majors. Nice to see him get the seasonsing he needs now before he gets ‘Todd Van Poppel’ sickness.
Detroit professional sports are really bad and have been for a while. Then again, these things tend to run in cycles.
Detroit fans deserve better. Hope brighter times are ahead for them. Great, historic sports town.
Keep an eye on the Red Wings and Pistons as these are two up and coming teams that will make some noise in the very near future
I’m sure many of you would be glad to know that I really don’t feel like posting after my mlb.com experience yesterday where I was just sat down with my leftover ultimate supreme pizza for Little Caesars and about to say hey the tigers stink but this ultimate supreme Pizza isn’t really that bad it’s pretty good and then up comes a pubic hair commercial and I cannot post here without saying Manfred is leading the MLB in the wrong direction what are these people thinking Ed commercials pubic hair commercials yeah I thought baseball was a family thing dude not not locker room I understand they’re trying to push them through locker room ass back to it dude but somebody has an agenda that was completely disgusting.
Congratulations to Mr Torkelson. He made it to the all-star break. And now has a good chance to come back and be the superstar that he has the potential to be congratulations you made it to the all-star break.
Ever heard of run on sentences and punctuation?
You’ll have to forgive him. He has been reading The Sound and the Fury.
William Faulkner stories..
time to trade him while he has some value left . Send him as part of a package to Wash for Soto.
Sending love and hope
What’s more stupid: the fact you implied Torkelson has little value, or that they should make a play for Soto and trade basically their whole future for one guy who probably won’t resign in 2 years
Or that the Nats would take Torkelson in a trade and not crack up laughing first
What’s more stupid: the fact that you imply that Torkelson comprises the Tigers whole future, or that you think said whole Tigers future commands so much value as to net a Soto in a trade?
22 yrs old and made the show. Wow. What a beast. Best wishes ST. Shocked if Detroit would consider trading him but you never know. Question. Can he play an ML level 3rd base? If not, he’s a stud hitter but with limited defensive ability. Could that hurt his “value” or narrow inquiries from number of teams interested in him in a trade scenario?
Nosering at it
They let him get to -1.4 WAR before sending him down? Sheesh
His defense at first has been great, bailing out Baez’s horrible throws daily.
Mlb.com is a disgusting experience. What the heck are these people thinking?
Manfred is totally leading the MLB in the wrong direction. I don’t think erectile dysfunction and pubic hair commercials are really appropriate commercials
This is the mlb. What, Walt Disney doesn’t want to advertise with MLB? SeaWorld doesn’t want to advertise with MLB? Six flags doesn’t want to advertise with mlb? The sales people from MLB are seeking out these type of commercials there’s no way that MLB is this desperate to have those kind of commercials.
Mlb has very obviously employed SOME VERY DISGUSTING PEOPLE.
You’re probably fun to hangout with.
Man what
So if it’s mlb.COM, the reason your seeing those ads are due to an algorithm created from cookies and etc that target people of your demographics and/or internet history. This is the age we live in… mlb sell ad slots and fill it with age/search engine appropriate ads. So apparently you search stuff that suggest you’d be a candidate for these ads, or you or someone in your household is a certain demographic
In fairness to the OP, I do see way more of those Roman commercials on MLBTV than I ever needed to. But it’s all about catering the commercials to the audience. MLB viewership is usually a bunch of middle-aged guys that use those products. Can’t blame advertisers for going where the market is.
Well it seems you aren’t into seaworld or six flags. Your internet browsing history suggests you’re more into pubic hair maintenance.
Gotta love all the highly paid superscouts on here, writing Torkelson off at age 22, after less than 300 big league PAs.
See Schmidt, Michael J.
That must have been well before the Phillies front office with all their can’t miss prospects. See: Drabek, Brown, Taylor, Kingery, Moniak, O’Hoppe (coming soon)
Stott, Bohm, Painter, Abel…
Yeah, Painter Abel and O’Hoppe are massive busts! SMH.
Will be. Par for the course.
Yes, less than 300 PAs. He’s only at 293. Give him 7 more PAs. And then. Write off away!
Writing off at Spencer J Torkelson at age 22. That would be like writing off a comedic actor after less than 300 episodes. See Fox, Michael J.
Writing off Torkelson off at age 22. That would be like writing off a Chicago Bull after less than 300 NBA games without a championship. See Jordan, Michael J.
Smart just isn’t your thing is it?
Clever sure isn’t either.
Congratulations to Mr Torkelson. You made it to the all-star break and now have a good chance to come back and be the superstar that you have the potential to be. Congratulations! You made it to the all-star break.
All-star
Congrats
What is the point of your comment? Why do you feel the need to say the first dumb thing that pops into your head?
Good move as this should allow Torkelson to get his head straightened out and start to hit likes hes capable of hitting as he showed in college and the minors last year. The next moves the Tigers need to make are to DFA Grossman and Candelario and bring up Carpenter and Kriedler to see what they can do. This season is lost, so lets see what the kids can do with an opportunity which will also allow the Tigers “Braintrust” (!!!) to get a head start on 2023.
Need a better Front office
Kreidler’s been hurt most of the season or he’d have been called up by now. Carpenter needs more time at AAA. It’s a big jump to The Show and it would be smart to take it easy with a 15th rounder not even on the team’s top 30 prospect list.
Carpenter would definitely be on the top 30 prospect list if it updated in real time.
Absolutely. He’s 24 and played in college. Not a 28 yr old who has got hot.
I have a feeling he’s going to be good.
Who cares what he’s ranked? He has 24hrs 1100 ops – that certainly deserves a look for the worst hitting team in baseball.
Mindless, by the book, moves are part of the reason we are in this mess. So what if he fails? His numbers in the minors are very special. It would be one thing if he had 10hr and 800ops.
You do not have the insight to know he will fail. Get some self awareness and learn you do not have all the answers.
Greenburg, but in a later post you dog him for “only” having 3 HR’s in 55 at bats and claim people are making things up that he is “mashing”.
He’s got the roid rage part down. He just needs a little bit more talent, some dubious underworld business associates, and some roids- and he’d have a bright future lined up as the next Big Papi. He’s got plenty of time. Papi didn’t transform into Big Papi till like he was 34
Keep on typing Dumpster Fire. Miraculously you’re still getting increasingly stupid. Wouldn’t have thought it possible
#bust
What were you like at age 22?
Ask again when he makes it out of high school…
I was a bust, so I’m qualified to discuss the manner as I have firsthand experience on the subject and am now an expert.
He does decent jerkface tho. So a future as a heel in romcoms await. Worked for Bradley Cooper.
Have to remember that even Trout struggled at first.
That’s true, but is a guy with a name like Spencer Torkelson really going to make it? Well, I guess if Engelbert Humperdinck can, anyone can.
This demotion isn’t Torkelson’s fault or a his inability to play the game. This demotion demonstrates the ineptness of the Tiger’s front office to properly handle their baseball personnel. Too many “analytical only” knowledge based promotions and demoting the “baseball” people to lesser roles. It takes a combination of both skills sets working as a cohesive unit to run a successful organization; obvious something Detroit is currently lacking.
Not sure I agree with you except the first sentence. Hinch is about analytics, but Avila is old school scouting. Maybe the two halves aren’t working as a “cohesive unit,” but you can’t credibly accuse the Tigers of being too hung up on the analyticals.
I’ve watched Tork take hundreds of AB’s this season and the man has looked badly overmatched 80% of the time. MLB baseball is really hard, you can be great at any lower level, but the step up to the pros is a massive one, and plenty of guys who looked supremely talented have been busts in MLB. Unfortunately, I suspect Tork is going to be one of them. He just doesn’t have it. I hope I’m wrong. He has been statistically the absolute worst in MLB thus far based on WAR. Not to mention his defense has been statistically below-average bordering on terrible. He should have been sent down two months ago. I hope he can pull it together. It will be a travesty if not.
What is your definition of “hundreds” of ABs? 300, 400, 500, 600? asking as Torkelson has 293 plate appearances ( at bats plus walks) so far this year, so your comment is somewhat devoid of any credibility
300 plate appearances is hundreds. Stop pretending to be the smartest guy in the room.
100 is not hundreds, 200 is as that’s 100 twice, s indicates more than one. Same for 300. Get it now? Plural means more than one and is denoted with the letter “s”. I certainly think 300pa is enough to determine if a player is ready for the bigs.
See how annoying you sound now?
Yes, turn to Greenberg for grammatical precision. It’s been year’s ago since he sold his Google stock.
Says easily the dumbest guy in any room…
Hey Jayheck. Ask siri. What is the definition of hundreds?
I don’t think I’ve seen a team dive from young and promising to disaster in half a season. They’ve certainly been snake bitten this year considering the depth of the starting pitching injuries and the underperformance of the lineup. Meadows trade didn’t work out. At least they have Riley Greene.
Meadows trade “didn’t work out”? What about all those Tiger fans genuflecting, histeppin and shazaming over how the Tigers robbed the Rays blind? Where are they now? On the road to Damascus? Or Grand Rapids?
This year hasn’t worked out, but Meadows will be around for years to come.
Paredes has been benched and is currently hitting .226. Where are all the Availa bashers genuflecting, hipsteppin and shazaming over the fact we traded away a “superstar”
Meadows trade is still too early to tell. Paredes had been back to playing like the same guy he was in detroit the past two weeks. Meadows still has the more proven track record.
Tork actually gets positive WAR for his defense, but by some measures is dragged down by playing a non-prime position.
You are negative all the time and often wrong on your “facts.”
I bet you would’ve sold google stock 20 year’s ago because it dropped a point.
A year has an ago? Or year is ago?
Good god. I type with one thumb on my phone with auto correct. I’m sorry you’re so threatened by my intelligent comments that you have to comb for tiny errors.
Type with one thumb. Hate for the room to think what the other hand is doing.
Too late. Hopefully Avila goes down too
Why would you even say that? He’s handing the draft tonight, the trade deadline the next 2 weeks, and Chris said he’s pleased with the progress. Does that sound like a guy going anywhere?
This Greenberg seems triggered. Wait. Tork, is that you?
Everyone needs to stop referencing advanced stats for minor leaguers. It really doesn’t matter how much a guy is walking or hitting for power, if he’s only hitting .260 against minor league pitching, that is giant red flag.
You have zero clue what you’re talking about. Many great power hitters didn’t hit for high averages in the minors.
Like Rob Deer and Steve Balvoni?
Not great. It’s Balboni, genius.
Name some.
Well, hey, as long as his exit velo is in the 80th percentile, what else matters?
People forget that this kid has been the Tigers “Golden Child” ever since his #1 overall pick. The Tigers put undue pressure on him before Manfred even left the damn podium by announcing him as a 3rd baseman right from the jump! He was robbed of an EXTREMELY important 2020 season by Covid BS. And then had 1 good (not great) season in the minors only to be put out in a subpar MLB lineup with absolutely zero protection. If you bring a rookie up and put him in front of a great hitter, he’ll see mostly FBs and will begin his career pretty well. When you have the protection of a Tigers lineup (39 year old Cabby, .192 hitting Candelario, etc) then he’ll struggle. This is more than a month to late, and I’m just hoping that his confidence is totally shot! Sick with it Tork!
Or you could argue that they did that to take some pressure off of him. He would have been the 1st ever RH 1B to be drafted 1st overall.
Absolutely right. This is all about Al’s fragile ego trying to pretend he can put together a team.
I disagree about protection though, he’s getting fastballs to hit in the zone and missing.
Wow. Robbed! The whole “Covid BS” was an imsidious conspiracy to rob him of an important 2020 season. Wait, not just an important 2020 season. But an EXTREMELY important 2020 season. Forget everything all that happened, all the illness and such. He was robbed!
Yes, he was robbed, as was all of MILB. No one is suggesting that the pandemic wasn’t awful for a ton of people. You try way too hard to sound smart, and it just backfires on you. Anyone with a brain can see that. It says a lot about your character to try to attack someone over a very small point. You’re clearly insecure, and attack others erroneously with trite points just to make yourself feel better. What you don’t understand is you just look worse.
This dude trolls everyone’s points but his own. I’m absolutely positive he drives a souped up Chevy Silverado with a 12″ lift kit and huge mudder tires but pays lot rent to his mom for the trailer they share with his 3 other siblings. Dude, you ain’t gotta troll just because your life sucks! Let it go my bro, let it go!
Is that you Tork? Nice cover. Shouldn’t you be working on your swing though. And maybe your perpetual jerkface, and not posting here? I don’t think AL Avila, Manfred, or the CDC get this deep into the comments section tho.
Haha, that dummy look on the photo says it all. Hopefully he cures what ever maladies him.
Is Al’s attempt to build a team been a total disaster? There have been too many injuries to be able to tell this year. At the start of the year, no one would have expected Grossman, Schoop, and Candelario to all fall apart. Avila was lauded for adding a 30 HR hitting SS, a solid rotation arm in Eduardo Rodriguez, and trading for Barnhart and Meadows. It looked promising.
To get rid of Al now means scrapping what’s been put together, as the next GM will put together his own roster. This is not the time to start over. They are pretty much committed to see if next years health corrects the problems that came this year.
I would also replace the batting coaches.
Kind of wondered if they were waiting for the AS break to make the move. Not the end of the world. Rookies often struggle. He’ll be fine……eventually.
This 2022 season has been more of a loss than anything Covid through at the Tigers. Baez swings at pitches almost hitting the bull, Cabrera has turned into a Punch and Judy, Grossman worst season of career, Schoop worst season of career, Candelario worst season of career, lost Greene to start season and oh BTW every starting pitcher on IR outside of Skubal. All this and still not worse team in baseball!! Let’s relax, get Torks swing back and pray Avila doesn’t go HS pitcher again this year!!
This guy is going to be good, he is just slumping and finding his way as a rookie
Trading deadline probably when he’ll be back up., but he’s not the problem. The break will do him good though. Trying to showcase guys like Fulmer has been a bust too. .Dfa’s and chicken feed in trade returns looms large for Detroit the way the team is playing now.
Tigers are sad
Bust
Please bring up Kerry Carpenter. 25 Hrs OPS over 1000….Give him a chance to see if he can bring his surge to the Bigs…worth seeing what he is at the MLB level
PARENTS MUST HAVE HATED HIM TO HANG ” SPENCER ” AHEAD OF ” TORKELSON ” – NAME CHANGE REQUIRED – GO WITH SPENCER NELSON – SIMPLER.