Tigers' Colt Keith, Spencer Torkelson conundrum has simple offseason solution

The Tigers have a first base problem. Five months into the season, Detroit made the decision to platoon Spencer Torkelson and Colt Keith at the position until one sticks.

It’s a little late in the year to figure out who the best option is, and it’s only going to lead to more question marks about the roster in the offseason.

Still, it’s a problem that needs solving.

Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic brought up the Torkelson-Keith conundrum in a recent article and wrote that the Tigers are facing a tough decision this offseason regarding both guys.

Detroit has been running out a platoon to begin the month of September. The move feels like a message from manager AJ Hinch to his 26-year-old first baseman and former No. 1 draft pick, who has taken a slight step back this season after a nice bounce-back in 2025.

That’s just not sustainable, and a decision for the future clearly needs to be made. And honestly, the solution is fairly obvious: trade one of them.

But which one should it be? That answer is a difficult one, but it feels like the obvious choice is Keith. Yes, Torkelson has been one of the most criticized players in the organization for years because of his lofty draft status, but he hasn’t lived up to his expectations and deserves some of the harsh reviews. The potential, however, might make him harder to part with.

Spencer Torkelson’s potential outweighs Colt Keith’s ceiling

The Tigers can’t say definitively what Torkelson is, because we’ve seen the good (31 homers in 2023 and 2025) and the bad (optioned twice) but the potential is there.

As for Keith, it just feels like he’s reached his ceiling. Although he is just 24 and showed major flashes in the minors before being called up as a .300 hitter with some pop, we just haven’t seen that consistently in three years at the major league level. He’s a career .258 hitter with 36 home runs, 141 RBI, and a .717 OPS.

For all the criticism that Tork gets, he’s a career .225 hitter with a .721 OPS, 102 home runs, and 303 RBI over parts of five seasons. When he's right, the power is clearly there. He also has a 26.9% strikeout rate which is higher than Keith’s 20.5%, but he’s also arguably the more natural first basemen defensively. He’s set to make a couple million more dollars through arbitration than Keith is making on his six-year, $28.64 million extension, but that’s worth it for more production at the plate and stronger defense at first base.

You could argue that Keith's defensive versatility sets him apart, but the Tigers have guys coming up through the system that can add infield depth like Max Anderson and Josue Briceño, so he wouldn’t be playing much anywhere else outside of first base anyways.

Paying $2-3 million more per year for the potential of 15-20 more home runs and 20-30 more RBI is worth making the move. The Tigers could also use 2027 as a potential stock-building year for Torkelson to improve his worth on the trade market. His value after a disappointing 2026 season wouldn’t be worth the deal.

The Tigers need to show full confidence in their former No. 1 overall pick and deal Keith for a minor league arm or two. It would clear up Detroit's infield logjam a little, and give Keith — who the Tigers have obviously never really known what to do with — a better shot at succeeding somewhere else.

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