Miguel Cabrera called it at the start of Spring Training.
“We want Torkelson in the lineup, so I’ll take the DH [slot],” Cabrera said on March 13, essentially handing off first-base duties to the Tigers’ top prospect.
Three weeks later, the Tigers made it official on Saturday: Spencer Torkelson has made the team and will be the starting first baseman on Opening Day on Friday afternoon at Comerica Park. And Torkelson let it be known that those words from Cabrera three weeks earlier helped him along the way.
“That really helped out,” Torkelson said. “It really helped with confidence and just feeling like, ‘You know what, I do belong, because I’ve got Miguel Cabrera saying I belong in the lineup.’
“It’s really special, and he has no idea how much it means to me.”
As Cabrera reflected on his remarks, he said he wasn’t trying to give a confidence boost. He was simply stating facts.
“I said that because we need him in the lineup,” Cabrera said. “If we want to win, we need him in the lineup because he has the potential to be really good in the big leagues. He has the potential to be the man here in Detroit. If he spent one more year in the Minor Leagues, it’s not going to help us.
“I think he’s ready. I think he’s going to be good and I think he’s going to do a lot of things for us in Detroit.”
Though the Tigers’ decision had been expected for most of Spring Training, the news clearly resonated with him, and not just for the way the Tigers broke it to him: Manager A.J. Hinch called him into his office with Cabrera and general manager Al Avila, and they went over some mistakes in the field that Cabrera could help him correct.
“They asked me if I was going to run into any more infielders, and I said no,” Torkelson said, laughing. “And then he said, ‘You’re on the team Opening Day.’ And it kind of hit me.”
The way Torkelson described it all, the emotion in his voice resonated. This was the first overall pick in the 2020 MLB Draft, a prospect seemingly ticketed for a fast track to the big leagues well before the Tigers selected him, holding back emotions like an older player finally getting his shot.
“It was a great moment,” Cabrera said. “To see his face, his emotion, it was a very emotional moment for me and for the guys in the room. I’m so happy for him because he worked hard to be on the team, and he made it.”
Remember that Torkelson, despite being the fifth No. 1 overall pick to come out of Arizona State, wasn’t always a can’t-miss prospect. He was the 32nd-ranked player in California out of high school, and the 208th-ranked player nationally by Perfect Game. When he enrolled at Arizona State, he got the No. 20 jersey because the number choices he submitted were taken by others.
Like Tigers teammate Casey Mize, he was the No. 1 overall pick out of college after going undrafted out of high school. And even after being drafted, he had a rough first Spring Training last year, going 1-for-27 with a single and 16 strikeouts. The most famous cut he took in camp last year was the slice to his thumb when he tried to open a can of salsa without a can opener.
“Night and day,” Torkelson said of the feeling.
How Torkelson rebounded from that camp last year to post a 30-homer season in the Minor Leagues played a role in the Tigers’ decision to bring him north.
“When you see him play on a daily basis, he just looks like a guy that can handle anything that comes his way,” Avila said. “You have to go back on last year, what he accomplished, and what a brutal Spring Training he had. And then the brutal start to the season, and how he overcame that, ended up in Triple-A and had a great year. So that tells you something about the guy’s makeup and character and basically his overall demeanor.”
Getting the news is a moment he’ll never forget. Cabrera still remembers when the Marlins called him up to the big leagues from Double-A in the middle of the 2003 season.
“That was a scary moment, because they took me out of the game,” he said. “I said, ‘Oh, I might have done something really bad, so they took me out.’ They told me after the game I was called up, and I was relieved.
“I was in the dugout, like, ‘What did I do?’ The manager didn’t even talk to me, so I [thought I] might have done something wrong.”
OUT OF LEFT FIELD
The Torkelson news means that the Tigers will have four infielders who, if healthy, should play close to every day at their positions, including Jonathan Schoop at second base, Javier Báez at shortstop and Jeimer Candelario at third. Compare that to last season, when just Candelario (142 starts at third) and Schoop (103 starts at first) made more than half the starts at a position. Willi Castro started exactly half the games at short.
On the flip side of Torkelson’s emotion is that of Riley Greene, who probably would’ve received the same news until a fractured right foot sidelined him. Yet those around Greene say he’s keeping a good attitude, thankful that he at least avoided surgery. “I feel for him,” Hinch said. “He’s taking this news as positive as he can.”
Similarly, tough timing for Derek Hill, whose hamstring tweak from a few days earlier has lingered to the point that he won’t be ready for Opening Day. It’s the latest injury to slow Hill’s rise, but he remains his natural upbeat self.
PROSPECT SPOTLIGHT
The West Michigan Whitecaps opened last season with two of the Tigers’ top three hitting prospects in 2020 Draft picks in Torkelson and Dillon Dingler, part of an incredibly talented lineup. This season, their strength could be a rotation that includes Ty Madden and Dylan Smith, two of the Tigers’ top four picks from the 2021 Draft.
While Madden has an accomplished track record that includes a trip to the College World Series, Smith is more of a phenom who rose to prominence last spring as a junior starter at Alabama following two seasons in the bullpen. He threw just 121 1/3 innings for the Crimson Tide, all but 23 of them in his final season.
“Dylan, I think he’s going to grow more quickly, faster, just because he hasn’t been on the mound as much,” Tigers vice president of player development Ryan Garko said last week. “Dylan’s now going to get that five-day routine and pitch — and know when he’s going to pitch. He didn’t have as much certainty as Ty did when he was at Alabama, especially the first two years.
“I think Dylan, you’re going to see early on some pretty rapid gains, just by getting into a starter’s routine and the work our pitching guys have done with him. But I think the ceiling for him is pretty high.”
Don’t let the 2-8 record from Smith’s junior season fool you, especially on an Alabama team where a reliever went 7-0 and the co-leader in wins had a 5.82 ERA. Smith had quality stuff and used it, posting 10.3 strikeouts per nine innings compared to just 1.8 walks, an incredible 5.65 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
“I feel like last year was the first time I really had an opportunity to go prove myself. I never really had that chance,” Smith said. “And now that I had that chance, I kind of took it and ran with it, and I didn’t let anyone take it from me. So when I got the opportunity I didn’t give it back. I just improved working on my game from fastball location to spinning the ball really well and locating my off-speed [pitches], being able to throw multiple off-speeds for strikes.”
Watching him work, it isn’t difficult to see why. He combines an explosive delivery with an aggressive mentality, pounding the strike zone on hitters. He throws a mid-90s fastball with a slider, curveball and splitter.
“You have to attack,” he said. “I feel like that’s the biggest part of my game, attack the zone and let the hitters get themselves out. If I do my job, then I feel like I give my team a chance to win the game.”
For a Tigers organization that values the ability to get swings and misses in the strike zone, the appeal is obvious.
“I feel like the biggest thing for me is proving myself to these guys, showing that I’m worthy and going out and dominating,” Smith said. “If so, I could find myself with the Tigers soon.”
TRIVIA
Who was the last Tiger to hit 30 home runs in his rookie season?
A. Tony Clark
B. Matt Nokes
C. Chris Shelton
D. Rudy York
TIGERS VAULT
Chris Shelton wasn’t a rookie when he opened the 2006 season as the Tigers’ starting first baseman; he’d been with the team for two seasons. However, the power display he put on to begin the season made him almost unrecognizable. He hit home runs down both foul lines for a two-homer game on Opening Day in Kansas City.
TRIVIA ANSWER
B: Matt Nokes hit 32 home runs for the Tigers as a rookie catcher in 1987. The only other Tigers rookie to do it was Rudy York, who homered 35 times in 1937.
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