Spencer Torkelson is Officially a Member of the Tigers Organization
Tuesday afternoon, the Detroit Tigers officially came to terms with their number one overall draft pick Spencer Torkelson. Jim Callis of MLB.com was the first to report the news on Twitter.
Had someone ask about the AP & ESPN reports. Torkelson will indeed get paid $8,418,800. His signing bonus is $8,416,300. He also gets an additional $2,500 signing contingency bonus. @Tigers @MLBDraft https://t.co/Bc2ua4Zp9L
— Jim Callis (@jimcallisMLB) June 30, 2020
As expected, Torkelson signed for slot value, but what’s fascinating is that it breaks a previous record from last year’s draft. Jon Heyman of MLB Network was the first with that angle of the story.
Spencer Torkelson’s total bonus of $8,418,800 tops Adley Rutschman’s record of a year ago #Tigers
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) June 30, 2020
Torkelson’s Path Now to the Big Leagues
Now that Spencer Torkelson is officially a member of the Detroit Tigers, all eyes turn towards the future for the 20-year old first/third baseman. Detroit has already made it clear that the organization is planning on including him in their 60-player pool for the upcoming season. As a result, Torkelson will get some much needed playing and development time.
Moving forward, Torkelson will likely be a high impact, middle of the order bat for the Tigers. With the offensive ceiling and abilities that he possesses, Detroit would be doing him a disservice by not slugging him in the middle of the order. After all, Torkelson has a tremendous amount of power, ability to hit the ball to all parts of the field, and very good plate discipline.
At the start of this year, Torkelson played in 17 games with Arizona State University. Over that sample, the first base prospect had an otherworldly .780 slugging percentage. Additionally, he ranked first in the league in on-base percentage (.598). On a national level, that put him fourth in that category.
In 2019, Torkelson put up a .351/.463/.729 slash line over 242 at-bats or 57 games. In that span, he recorded 23 home runs, 66 RBI, 41 walks, and 45 strikeouts. Furthermore, from a fielding perspective, he did very well also. Cumulatively, Torkelson had a .992 Fielding Percentage and only committed four errors.
Outlook for the Detroit Tigers This Season
Looking ahead to the coming season, it will likely be another rebuilding year for the Tigers. Torkelson will have plenty of opportunities to get at-bats and really establish himself in the middle of the batting order. In addition, he will have a chance to showcase his defensive abilities at first and third base as the Tigers start to get their team set for the future.
Beyond Torkelson, the Tigers have some very promising starting pitchers coming up through the system. Prior to this year’s MLB Draft, Detroit lacked impact offensive players. Torkelson helps to address that and when you add him to the mix of right-handers Casey Mize and Matt Manning, the future starts to look quite promising. Both Size and Manning are Detroit’s top two prospects. Additionally, left-hander, Tarik Skubal should be another high-impact starting pitcher for Detroit in the future.
Regardless, the Tigers have started to solidify a big part of their future core by coming to terms with Spencer Torkelson. Now, only time will tell how high his ceiling truly is.
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