When you hear the quote, “there is no education like adversity”, you may not think of baseball however, it applies to the return of Spencer Torkelson to the Detroit Tigers roster. While stats may paint a picture of what a player is, ultimately, it’s up to the organization on the direction and future of the player.
“I know I belong here” Torkelson said. He has a point. Torkelson hit 31 home runs last season, and that was not by accident. With recent call-ups of Jung and Sweeney, who are both left-handed bats, Detroit essentially needed some sort of right-handed power to their lineup. While that is the sound of a player with confidence that based on his tr
“Now, you know, we wanted to do a little bit of everything. Obviously, hit the wall hard, hit the wall here, you know, used the power to leverage defensively, make a few adjustments. Detroit Tigers manager A.J.Hinch said. And he went down and addressed a lot of those. And obviously, we’re all going to want to see at this level and see him just take a deep breath and relax here.“
Hinch has faith
Spencer Torkelson’s return to Detroit after spending six weeks in Toledo has sparked conversations about his future with the Tigers. His overall confidence on the field has not changed. However, the mental approach he says, in his time in Toledo, has changed.
Yeah, I would say the approach from where I was at before is that you coming to this year as myself, I was definitely trying to do too much and as much as I don’t want to admit it, I definitely was. Torkeson said. In this game, if you’re at the play trying to try to produce and trying to, you know, slug, that’s not the, that’s not the key to success. You know, the key to success is just a solid consistent approach being ahead of first and trusting my natural swing and my natural power to come through often.
The Tigers might be using these last few weeks of the season to showcase Torkelson’s development, either as a signal to the rest of the league that he’s back on track or as a reaffirmation to the organization that they have their first baseman of the future.
The ability is there, and his manager believes it. Hopefully he’s learned and others will learn from him that, you know, you’ve got to try to block all that out and just play the game. Hinch said. His natural ability on this level is really good and can impact this level. We need one of nine hitters. We don’t need him to be two hitters.” In his first at-bat on Saturday, Torkelson doubled into the left-center gap and earned a thunderous applause from the crowd. Not too much, just play within himself.
Here’s Tigers manager A.J. Hinch on Spencer Torkelson returning to Detroit and how he fits into the lineup plans pic.twitter.com/XPRBAAJJcs
— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) August 17, 2024
However, the question remains: Is Detroit genuinely committed to Spencer Torkelson, or are they simply hesitant to invest in another high-priced free agent to fill the void at first base? If Torkelson continues to demonstrate his growth, the Tigers could justify sticking with their homegrown talent, which would allow them to allocate resources elsewhere.
Yet, if the front office still has doubts, this showcase could serve as the final evaluation before making a decision in the off season. Either way, Torkelson’s performance in these closing weeks will likely be a defining factor in the Tigers’ plans moving forward.
Jayden Hewitt 
Chris Brown