Tigers should recall Spencer Torkelson to play alongside surging young studs

Spencer Torkelson has been in exile from the majors since June 3, after a deserved and probably overdue demotion. He failed to hit over .250 from April through May, and only raised his head above .240 twice over a three-game span. By the time he was sent back to Toledo, he was hitting .205 with four home runs and 18 RBI over 54 games.

This was a far cry from the player who hit 31 home runs in his rookie season and was expected to be a leader for the Tigers' young core this year. It left Detroit without any solid, long-term options at first base, but it was necessary to get him back into major league shape.

By now, Torkelson has taken almost about as many at-bats in Triple-A as he has in the majors this year. He's hitting better and had a nice week and a half in Toledo, with four home runs and 17 RBI since July 28, including a two-homer and seven-RBI night right at the beginning of that stretch.

So when is the right time for the Tigers to welcome Torkelson back to the majors?

Is it time for the Tigers to recall Spencer Torkelson after two months in the minors?

All told, Torkelson has batted .241 with a .799 OPS in Toledo, along with 10 home runs and 42 RBI. Most importantly, he's finally back to hitting the fastball. That was a huge part of the problem when the Tigers sent him down; he was hitting .198 against them versus .296 last season. He said, "I never thought it was total swing issue. … Maybe on video you'd see it and call it a swing issue, but it was just the approach wasn't there. The rhythm and the feel wasn't there for me."

He might be a little too confident now — "When I'm right, when my rhythm’s right and my feel and my confidence is right in the box, I feel like a guy can be throwing 110 mph and if he leaves it over the heart of the plate, I'm gonna do damage on it" — and he is still hitting below .250, but his power is getting back to where it should be.

To the question of whether or not the Tigers should call him back up — why not? The Tigers have nothing to lose at this point and have a nice young group he can grow with (Colt Keith and Parker Meadows as well as Kerry Carpenter and Riley Greene when they return). Giving Torkelson some time to settle back into the majors at the end of the year could help him going into 2025, and the Tigers will at least know what they have if he's playing alongside their other promising up-and-comers.