Tork's bombs are blasting Tigers through April in the D
The resurgence of the Tigers' 1-1 pick from 2020 is a key reason why the team sits in first place after 22 games.
So what do you think about the Tigers’ new acquisition who’s holding down the middle of the batting order?
Are you impressed with how they dug up this new guy, who’s blasting home runs left and right, hitting with RISP and taking (gulp) walks?
Could this new dude be key to a second straight playoff appearance?
Meet Spencer Torkelson.
No, not that Spencer Torkelson. Not the kid the Tigers drafted 1/1 in 2020 out of Arizona State. Not the one who has mostly stunk up the joint since making his big league debut in 2022.
I’m talking about the new Tork. The one with an OPS of 1.029. The one with 7 HR and 21 RBI in 80 AB. The one with a robust OBA of .392.
That one.
Tork’s latest bomb, a three-run job, provided all the offense the Tigers needed on Saturday, when they whipped the Royals, 3-1 to win the first three games of a weekend four-game set.
It’s a new man at the plate, in the batter’s box and between the ears.
It wasn’t looking that way as recently as last season. Hell, as recently as in the playoffs last October. Tork was the Big Engine Who Couldn’t. His struggles at the plate followed a pattern since he was brought up to the bigs for Opening Day 2022: flashes of brilliance followed by seemingly interminable spates of darkness.
Tork became the Tiger who wasn’t the elephant in the room—he WAS the room.
As with many “polarizing” players, two factions formed in the Tigers’ fan base.
Cut the bum!
I believe in Tork!
There really wasn’t any middle ground. No DMZ when it came to Spencer Torkelson.
But after 22 games this season—granted, a small sample size when a season’s success or failure really should involve some 400+ AB—the “cut the bum!” faction has been awfully quiet.
The great thing about Torkelson’s early success is that it wasn’t counted on. In fact, his even being on the roster wasn’t counted on. At all.
You remember.
Spring training was winding down and it didn’t look like there was a place for Tork.
At best, he was going to be the Tigers’ DH against lefties. Which meant that his plate appearances would be less, because teams mostly throw right-handers.
At worst, he would start the season in Toledo, shoved off the 25-man roster in a “numbers crunch.”
But as Opening Day approached, and as Tork was acquitting himself well in the Florida sunshine and certain players fell to injuries, the door to his being on the 25-man creaked open.
In fact, when Opening Day hit on March 27 in Los Angeles, guess who was in the lineup, batting cleanup no less?
Spencer Torkelson.
He hit a homer in the 7th inning that night and really hasn’t stopped hitting them since.
One HR for every 11.4 AB is Babe Ruth country.
The emergence of Tork into the player the Tigers hoped he would be—at least so far—has been the prime story, I think, in the team’s 13-9 start, which includes 13-6 after the opening weekend sweep at the hands of the Dodgers.
In March, when the Tigers gathered in Lakeland, the path for Tork to be a key contributor looked to be narrow.
The acquisition of Gleyber Torres, nee of the Yankees, moved last year’s rookie 2B Colt Keith to 1B. Which effectively shoved Tork to a part-time DH. Manager AJ Hinch tried Torkelson in the outfield in the Grapefruit League, but the skipper wasn’t fooling anyone with that move. It’s one thing to be a Swiss Army knife. But Hinch was trying to make a Swiss Army knife out of a spoon.
The Tork/OF experiment was short-lived. But Hinch gave it a shot as one Tigers outfielder after another went down to injury.
Still, don’t expect to see Torkelson chasing down flyballs unless a catastrophe hits during a game.
But a funny thing happened on the way to Toledo.
Torkelson started hitting some bombs in Florida. Guys got hurt. Tork hit some more bombs. More guys got hurt. And so on.
OK, folks thought. Tearing up the Grapefruit League is great, but in the name of Timmy Corcoran, will it translate to the regular season?
So far? Yes. Very much so.
What’s the catch?
Maybe there isn’t one. Reports say that Torkelson, who had carried with him a reputation of being mule-headed when it came to having his swing tweaked, finally relented and made some adjustments in stance, approach and swing.
He literally looks like a new man.
For those who might still have a squeamish feeling about this, and fear that it’s not sustainable, you’re more than justified. It’s a long season and 80 AB isn’t much. And Tork has had stretches of similar length when he’s hit the tar out of the ball, only to fall back into bad habits and look clueless.
But this feels different.
Of Tork’s 3-run bomb that sunk the Royals, Hinch said, “The actual adjustment came from the uncomfortable swings that we saw him have earlier in the game. Tork had to separate at-bat to at-bat today. That, to me, is tremendous growth and one of the reasons that he is so comfortable in the batter’s box.”
Torkelson took the same “aw, shucks” angle that most great hitters use after a big game.
"He threw some really good pitches and I just tried to battle them off," Torkelson said about his dinger off Seth Lugo. "And just capitalized on one mistake."
You’re totally in line to take Torkelson’s April success with a grain of salt. He’s carried the Tigers thus far but we still have 140 games to go.
The team’s PR department shot out this nugget over the weekend.
Spencer Torkelson is the fifth Tiger since 2000 to hit 7+ home runs in the team's first 21 games of a season.
Spencer Torkelson (2025, 7 HR)
Miguel Cabrera (2012, 7 HR)
Brandon Inge (2009, 7 HR)
Curtis Granderson (2009, 7 HR)
Chris Shelton (2006, 9 HR)
Those names are a mixed bag of Hall of Fame, fan favorite and flash-in-the-pan.
Joe Garagiola was right: baseball is a funny game.