Detroit Tigers: Scott Harris still believes in Spencer Torkelson

Scott Harris still believes in Spencer Torkelson for the Detroit Tigers’ future.

The Detroit Tigers’ offseason is in full swing, and the building blocks for the future are going to keep falling into place. The Tigers are hedging their bets on one of the biggest pieces: Spencer Torkelson.

Perhaps one of the best collegiate bats with the purest swing coming out of Arizona State University during the 2020 draft. The Detroit Tigers selected him with the first overall pick, and things have yet to transpire to the level the team was hoping fully.

However, the Tigers have patience with Torkelson, who still has the time to develop and get into a groove at the MLB level. He was dropped down into the Triple-A affiliate at the All-Star break and spent some time down there hitting the reset button before he got his call back.

Ultimately, Torkelson returned to the Tigers and got the bat working for him. He rebounded nicely on his return trip to the Tigers. He was not going out and murdering baseballs or tearing the cover off the baseball but showed an improvement which bodes well moving forward.

Harris dropped a few nuggets on the Tigers fans during his interview with the media in Las Vegas at the General Manager Meetings. He shared that he believes Torkelson is the answer at first base and will be the long-term answer.

Though one of the things that Harris did hint at is that the Tigers are in the market for a short-term answer at first base, which indicates to me that Harris is going to try and find someone to platoon with Torkelson.

It also makes me think that Torkelson might find himself back in Triple-A as he tries to find the success piloted as part of his draft profile. But it’s good to hear that Harris has a vote of confidence in Torkelson being the long-term answer.

Rather than side-stepping around it or saying that the team is going to explore the best options everywhere, he mentioned that Torkelson is the expected answer in the long term, but someone may be brought in to play first in the short term.

Torkelson needs a big year in 2023. Even if the team brings in a first baseman, the Tigers need him to start coming around and getting the bat working for him to be a valuable part of this team moving forward.