It’s an oft-used phrase by the Tigers’ rookie slugger, sometimes on social media, sometimes in interviews. Some of his teammates have brought it up when talking about him.
“It’s pretty service-level,” he explained Wednesday. It’s just like, ‘Now we go,’ you know?”
Torkelson’s pro career has kind of followed that. At each of his Minor League stops, he generally had an adjustment period. After a 1-for-27, 16-strikeout Spring Training in 2021, he singled in his second pro game last year for High-A West Michigan, but he went 1-for-16 with 10 strikeouts in his first four games for the Whitecaps.
He went 9-for-50 with 14 walks and 18 strikeouts over his first 14 games before he hit his first pro home run. He batted .424 (25-for-59) with five homers over his next 17 games before being promoted to Double-A Erie.
He was struggling to keep his average over .200 a few weeks in with the SeaWolves until another tear led to his promotion to Triple-A Toledo, where he went 4-for-28 over his first seven games before hitting his first home run as a Mud Hen.
So maybe it figured that Torkelson ended his 0-for-10 start to 2022 with his first Major League hit on Tuesday, then he slugged his first big league homer the next day as part of his first multihit performance.
“I think Tork will be fine,” Hinch deadpanned.
Torkelson said he wasn’t worried, either. The key was he had remained patient during that stretch, maintaining his plate discipline and declining to chase pitches out of the zone.
That’s the lesson Torkelson learned from his early struggles last year. He had four called third strikes during his 0-for-10 start, one of them arguably off the plate, but he wasn’t getting himself out.
“I learned to trust myself,” he said. “Going through last year really helped me stay the course, respect the baseball gods. They were testing me a little bit, but you just keep the same energy, keep the same course and it’ll find its way.”
Still, he admits, as he sent a Rich Hill fastball into right-center field on Tuesday afternoon, he was hoping.
“I was yelling at the ball,” he said, “like, ‘Get down! Get down!’ Yeah, it felt good.”
One of the reasons Torkelson tends to adjust is that he learns not only how he’s being pitched, but learns about who is pitching to him. He talked in Spring Training about the value of seeing every pitch that a pitcher has, whether it’s in a long at-bat or over the course of a game. That’s how he turned an 11-pitch battle with Phillies All-Star Aaron Nola into his first home run in a Tigers uniform in Spring Training.
When Torkelson faced Red Sox reliever Austin Davis on Wednesday, he remembered their six-pitch battle in Monday’s series opener, seeing fastballs and sliders before lining out on a slider on the inner part of the plate.
“It does help seeing a guy twice,” Torkelson said. “I saw all of his pitches two days ago when I pinch-hit. I saw him well. I just missed a slider that got in on me. But I stayed on the fastball [Wednesday] and he gave it to me.”
Torkelson was already in fastball-hunting mode when he stepped to the plate against Davis in the seventh inning. Torkelson laid off Davis’ first-pitch high fastball, but was ready when Davis followed with another fastball at the top of the zone.
The first Major League Tork Bomb traveled 396 feet to left. Compared to his first hit, there wasn’t much suspense with the homer.
“I kind of stood there and enjoyed it a little bit,” he said, almost apologetic. “I didn’t mean to show up the pitcher or anything. I just knew I got it as soon as I hit it, so I just wanted to enjoy it.”
He’d earned it.
Much like Spring Training, when he was winning a job, Torkelson hasn’t looked like a player feeling pressure. Between the preparation he put in this offseason and his visualization of himself as a Major Leaguer for years — even when he was an undrafted kid out of high school and a mid-level recruit at Arizona State — he said he has felt ready for the moment.
“I feel like I belong here, and I feel like I’m seeing the ball great,” he said. “As long as I just go out there every day, have fun, trust myself, everything’s going to follow.”
Torkelson did get the ball Tuesday, even though Jeimer Candelario briefly pretended to throw it into the stands. He also has the bat. So where are they going?
“My man cave,” said Torkelson, referring to his house in Arizona.
That’s one part of his game, he said, that still needs to step up to the big leagues.
“It’s a Minor League man cave,” Torkelson said.
OUT OF LEFT FIELD
One full turn through the Tigers’ rotation, the biggest impression came from Matt Manning, arguably the most overlooked prospect of Detroit’s big three. The former first-round pick looked confident and assertive tossing six innings of one-hit, one-run ball against a Red Sox lineup with power threats up and down the order, paying only for a fastball over the plate to former Tiger J.D. Martinez. Just as impressive, Manning mixed his curveball and slider almost equally off his fastball, with similar success. If he can build off of this in his next start at Kansas City, he’ll be building his case to be mentioned alongside Casey Mize and Tarik Skubal.
Michael Fulmer was throwing fastballs at 92 mph and struggling with his secondary stuff in Spring Training, raising concerns if the shorter camp would be enough for him to be ready for the season. Instead, his fastball and sinker averaged 94 mph in his first couple outings, and his slider was up around 91 mph, resulting in filthy stuff. It’s a small sample size, but he entered Wednesday ranked among the top five percent of pitchers in lowest average exit velocity, lowest hard-hit rate, expected ERA and expected slugging percentage. Regular-season game adrenaline is a huge lift, as is Fulmer’s performance for a young, injury-depleted bullpen.
MINOR LEAGUE SPOTLIGHT
Roberto Campos has a knack for good first impressions — and not just because the Tigers’ No. 10 prospect has a smile that’s infectious.
When the Cuban-born outfielder made his Minor League debut in the Florida Complex League last July, he hit the first pitch of his first at-bat deep to left for a home run.
Fast forward nine months, and Campos earned an opportunity to take his first at-bat in a Detroit Tigers uniform in Spring Training a couple weeks ago as an extra player brought over from Minor League camp. In his first Grapefruit League at-bat, he went deep to right field for a go-ahead two-run homer at Joker Marchant Stadium.
Campos bolted down the first-base line, thinking it might be a double. When he heard the crowd erupt and realized he had homered, he could have floated around the basepaths.
“It is amazing,” Campos said at the time through the translator and Tigers media relations bilingual coordinator Carlos Guillen. “You have no idea, not even myself. I have no words to describe this thing.”
This is the power that was advertised when the Tigers signed Campos as a teenager for a then-record $2.85 million bonus in July 2019. He defected from Cuba as a 13-year-old in 2016 after winning MVP honors for his national team in a tournament in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. He stayed in the Dominican to train with former Tigers outfielder Alex Sanchez for three years before signing.
Add in a lost 2020 with the cancellation of the Minor League season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Campos was very much a mystery man. His talent is becoming clearer now. So is his joy for the game.
“I want the fans to expect the best from me, because I always give the best of me,” Campos said after his homer. “I’ve been working through this since last year and I’ve been preparing myself for moments like this, opportunities like this. So what you guys are seeing on the field is what I’m trying to do, working hard all the time to do my best.”
Still just 18, Campos’ 6-foot-2, 200-pound frame looms large for his age. More than raw strength, however, he looks more like a fluid athlete when he moves. He’s athletic enough to play center field, at least in the lower levels of the Minor Leagues.
Just as important, he’s showing the instincts to make adjustments as a hitter. More than pull power, the right-handed hitter is showing the ability in Minor League camp to slash line drives and home runs to the opposite field, going with pitches.
“That’s my approach,” Campos said. “I know during my career I’ll have to work a lot on hitting the ball from center field towards right field, because they’ll throw a lot of breaking balls towards me. So I have to take advantage of that.”
So far in his first full-season Minor League assignment at Single-A Lakeland, Campos is showing a steady approach. He hit safely in each of his first four games for the Flying Tigers, batting 6-for-17 with one double. He had five strikeouts, a sign of a strikeout rate that he’ll need to improve, but that’s not rare for his age.
TRIVIA
The Tigers head to Kansas City for four games this weekend. Which Tiger has the most hits against the Royals in a season?
A. Miguel Cabrera
B. Carlos Guillen
C. Austin Jackson
D. Ian Kinsler
TIGERS VAULT
Miguel Cabrera heads to Kansas City this weekend with a .316 career average and an .887 OPS at Kauffman Stadium to go with 19 home runs and 90 RBIs, including this game-tying solo shot off Peter Moylan on Sept. 2, 2016.
TRIVIA ANSWER
D.Ian Kinsler went 28-for-76 (.368) in 19 games against the Royals in 2016, including 14-for-26 over six games in September of that season.
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