The Tigers will be sending first baseman Spencer Torkelson down to Triple-A prior to tomorrow’s game with the Rangers, Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press reports. The move opens up a 26-man roster spot for Justyn-Henry Malloy, whose impending promotion to the big leagues was reported by Petzold earlier today.
Torkelson didn’t play in two of the Tigers’ last three games, and prior to today’s 8-4 win over the Red Sox, Detroit manager A.J. Hinch have a rather non-committal answer when asked if optioning Torkelson to the minors was a possibility. As it turned out, the speculation was correct, and Torkelson will now head for Triple-A Toledo for the first time since his 2022 season.
In July of that year, Torkelson was hitting only .197/.282/.295 when the Tigers sent him back to the minors for six weeks to try and get on track. While he didn’t hit much better after being recalled in September, some improvement was evident last season, when Torkelson hit .233/.313/.446 with 31 home runs over 684 plate appearances. This translated to a respectable 107 wRC+, and given that Torkelson had some of the best hard-hit ball and barrel rates in the league, there was plenty of optimism that he would fully break out in his third MLB season.
Unfortunately for Torkelson and the Tigers, his numbers have sharply swung in the other direction. Torkelson has only a 71 wRC+ from four homers and a .201/.266/.330 slash line, and his hard-contact metrics and walk rates have all swung well below the league average. Things have gotten particularly dire over Torkelson’s last 10 games, with just three hits to show from his last 40 trips to the plate.
This deep slump left the Tigers no choice but to see if the first overall pick of the 2020 draft can again find himself with a stint in the minors. Torkelson’s option comes even with Kerry Carpenter on the 15-day injured list and possibly facing an extended layoff due to a stress fracture in his back, yet given his numbers, the argument can certainly be made that the Tigers’ lineup would be improved rather further hampered if someone besides Torkelson took over at first base.
Torkelson entered the season with one full year and 137 days of MLB service time. Another full season in the majors would have put Torkelson in very good position to earn Super Two status and an extra year of arbitration eligibility, based on where the Super Two threshold has usually fallen over the last 15 seasons. While the thresholds have trended a bit lower over the last five years, spending even a month in Toledo could take Torkelson out of the Super Two conversation altogether.
This is undoubtedly a concern for Torkelson and his reps at the Boras Corporation, and Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris surely considered the Super Two implications among the many factors involved in the decision to option Torkelson to Triple-A. What both parties can agree on, however, is that Torkelson’s future earning potential will will be even more adversely impacted if he can’t consistently hit Major League pitching, so some time in the minors might be necessary at this still-early stage in Torkelson’s career. It shouldn’t be overlooked at Torkelson is still not even 25 years old, and his baseball development already had the unexpected roadblock of the canceled 2020 minor league season.
Mark Canha, Gio Urshela, or Andy Ibanez could get some time at first base as Detroit will now shuffle its lineup around in search of more overall production. Malloy figures to play as a corner outfielder or DH, and if Urshela starts playing more often at first base, it opens up more third-base playing time for the hot-hitting Matt Vierling, who is currently in a timeshare at third base and center field.