CIN
Spencer Torkelson, IF
Edit player ✎
Baseball Reference →
FanGraphs →
MLB →
Scouting report
Torkelson broke Barry Bonds' freshman home run record at Arizona State and the school moved the fences in for his sophomore season, so he had another great year and looked likely to break both the ASU and Pac-12 career marks as a junior before COVID-19 ended the season. Indeed, after he hit a combined .336/.445/.722 as a freshman and sophomore, Tork was off to a ridiculous .340/.598/.780 start to his final college season, and was leading the country in walks as opposing pitchers began to fearfully dump in more and more breaking balls against him. As the draft approached, he began to swing over the top of those breaking balls more than usual, which might have been because either he was pressing due to the looming draft, or because of the lack of an impact sidekick in ASU's lineup since Hunter Bishop was no longer hitting behind him. Torkelson has sublime hitter's timing, plus bat speed, and above-average barrel control and ball/strike recognition, really only struggling with those breaking balls located beneath the zone, which may be easy to remedy with a slightly longer stride to create more barrel depth. The Tigers announced him as a third baseman, and it makes sense for them to explore if he can be even a 35- or 40-grade defender there. He's been surprisingly acceptable at third this spring, but with body comps to Yankees first baseman Luke Voit, it's going to be a struggle to stick there. It's a tough profile, but his elite statistical track record and the visual evaluation of Torkelson's hitting acumen align and serve to generate confidence that he'll be a thumping, heart of the order hitter. And Detroit will probably allow him to move quickly since so much of their young pitching is now arriving in the big leagues. (Alternate site, Fall Instructional League)