Damn, this sucks.
Riley Greene has a fractured bone in his foot and will miss the start of the season, delaying his Detroit Tigers debut for six to eight weeks.
“Yes, terrible,” Alan Greene, Riley’s dad, wrote in a text on Saturday afternoon.
Around the same time as that news was coming out, the Tigers announced that first baseman (and 2020 No. 1 overall draft pick) Spencer Torkelson had made the club.
“Lori, Spenny and I were in tears this morning when he called,” Rick Torkelson, Spencer’s dad, wrote in a text about his wife and son.
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Two dads living on two ends of the emotional spectrum, and they summed up the state of Tigers fans on a crazy Saturday: Bummed for Greene but elated for Torkelson.
After Torkelson was told that he made the club, Miguel Cabrera gave him a first-baseman’s glove, a touching, symbolic transfer. “He gave me a big hug,” Torkelson said to reporters. “I do belong, because I got Miguel Cabrera saying I belong in the lineup, so that’s really special, and he has no idea how much it means to me. And he didn’t have to say those things. So it’s awesome.”
Then, Torkelson found Greene and hugged him. They are close friends and share a house at spring training. “I wanted to go through this with him,” Torkelson told reporters. “I know this team can’t wait to have him because we’re a better team with him.”
Greene would have made the club if he didn’t get hurt, according to Tigers general manager Al Avila. “I’ll tell you what, he’s handled it better than anybody,” Avila told reporters. “I had to make sure that AJ (Hinch) didn’t jump over the ledge.”
That the Tigers are bringing up Torkelson — and would have brought up Greene — is a clear message: They are trying to win now, and that should be applauded. They could manipulate service time by keeping Torkelson in the minor leagues for a few weeks in April; that would have given them a year on the back end of his team-controlled years, delaying free agency from the 2027-28 offseason to 2028-29.
But they didn’t do that.
Yes, under the new collective bargaining agreement, there’s actually an incentive to bring Torkelson up now. If a prospect is on the roster for Opening Day and finishes in the top three in Rookie of the Year voting, the team gets an extra draft pick. So that will be fun to watch this season.
But when you step aside from the dollars and cents and draft picks, do you know what I find amazing?
That the Tigers pushed Torkelson this fast — that hasn’t exactly been their style in recent history. They still have too many players in their system who have been slow-walked from the draft to their shot at the majors.
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A rapid rise
Consider how fast Torkelson, 22, has climbed through the Tigers’ system.
The Tigers drafted Torkelson No. 1 overall in June 2020 but COVID messed up that entire season, nixing the minor leagues entirely.
Sixteen months ago, Torkelson was playing instructional ball in Lakeland, Florida. I went to watch him and he did fine. Nothing extraordinary when I was there.
Thirteen months ago, Torkelson was struggling through a brutal spring training, finishing 1-for-27 with a lot of strikeouts.
Eleven months ago, Torkelson made his pro debut and I went to Fort Wayne, Indiana, to watch him play for High-A West Michigan.
Yes, less than a year ago, he was still playing third base, three rungs from the major leagues. Amazing.
It was a forgettable debut, as he struck out three times. “You just flush it and remember, it’s baseball,” he told me, “and then, come back tomorrow with the same attitude and give it your best effort.”
He sounded like Tigers manager AJ Hinch — flush it, move on and play again tomorrow.
But he continued to struggle, hitting .235 in May.
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But you know what? He didn’t crack.
He got it together, started hammering the ball, jumped on a rocket and soared through the Tigers’ system, ending up in Triple-A Toledo. And would you look at that? He finished with 30 home runs.
“A brutal spring training he had,” Avila told reporters Saturday. “And then the brutal start to the season, and how he overcame that and ended up in Triple-A, had a great year. So that tells you something about the guy’s makeup and his character and his overall demeanor.”
Who’s next?
Again, give the Tigers credit for pushing Torkelson. He certainly looks ready, with a .280 batting average and .406 on-base percentage entering Sunday.
And give the Tigers credit for not worrying about service time. What an encouraging sign for the future.
Hopefully, this gives the Tigers a road map of how to handle the next wave of prospects — players such as Cristian Santana, a gifted 18-year-old shortstop; Jackson Jobe, a talented 19-year-old right-hander; Izaac Pacheco, a big-hitting 19-year-old third baseman; and Manuel Sequera, an intriguing 19-year-old shortstop.
Obviously, none of them are ready for the big leagues. But it’s important for the Tigers to push them through the system at a faster pace. To keep waves of players getting to the big leagues — that’s how you build a sustainable club.
Because they have too many prospects whose ages are creeping up. Ryan Kreidler has shown amazing defensive ability — he has had an MLB-ready glove for a couple years now — but he’s already 24. Kody Clemens, a 2019 draft pick, is 25. Dillon Dingler, a 2020 second-rounder, turns 24 in September. And former first-round pick Alex Faedo is 26, although his rise was slowed by Tommy John surgery last year.
The door hasn’t closed on those guys by any means.
But they’re not getting any younger while they’re still in the minors.
The key is to move the next wave with some urgency. Not carelessly. But quicker than in the past.
So that we have more days like Saturday.
Hopefully, at some point this season, we’ll see some of the Tigers’ young pitching prospects — perhaps 2021 picks such as Dylan Smith, 21, and Ty Madden, 22 — get promoted quickly through the system.
Because the next wave can’t arrive soon enough.
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Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @seideljeff.