CLEVELAND — The Tigers will open the second half of their season without one of the key hitters in their long-term plans. Detroit announced Sunday that it has optioned first baseman Spencer Torkelson to Triple-A Toledo in an effort to work on his hitting approach.
Torkelson will join the Mud Hens when they open the second half of their season on Friday. How long he spends there will be determined by the quality of work on his approach and swing.
“It could be 10 days, could be two weeks, could be a month,” manager A.J. Hinch said Sunday. “It doesn’t matter how long it takes to get him back to feeling good.”
The top overall pick in the 2020 MLB Draft, Torkelson ended the first half batting .197 (52-for-264) with 11 doubles, five home runs, 21 RBIs and a 68 OPS+. His .577 OPS ranks 154th out of 158 qualified Major League hitters. The 22-year-old has maintained a disciplined approach at the plate; his 24.8 percent chase rate on pitches outside the strike zone is well below the 28.3 percent MLB average and ranks in the 74th percentile among big league hitters. However, his hard-hit and barrel rates are both well below average, while his chase rate has risen in the last few weeks.
Torkelson has enjoyed brief spurts of success throughout the first half, but has never been able to build on them. Meanwhile, he has one home run in his last 49 games, placing him among several Tigers hitters struggling to hit for power.
The Tigers have been debating for a while whether Torkelson needed a stint in Toledo to help emerge from his struggles. Part of the delay came from his strong defense helping the rest of the infield. Another was the hope that fellow top prospect and good friend Riley Greene’s arrival could provide a spark for him.
“If we would’ve sent him to Toledo earlier, could it have been better? Maybe,” general manager Al Avila said on July 8. “But, at the same time, that pitching is different, a different challenge. Our defense would be a little bit weaker here. So let’s see if we can get this going here. We know if we send him to Toledo, he’s probably going to go off again and then come back here — and then what? So we’re trying to make it work here as best we can.”
The situation changed in recent days, with less regular playing time and less quality at-bats. By the end of the Tigers’ road trip, Torkelson was sharing time at first base with Harold Castro.
“We have a plan in place to get him some at-bats and get him back to being the offensive force that we know he’s going to be,” Hinch said. “It’s much less spotlight to do it at Triple-A than it is to continue to do this in the big leagues. If I’m going to take him out, not play him every single day, it’s counterproductive to what he needs — which is more pitches to see, more pitches to [hit] in Triple-A.”
What Torkelson does statistically, Hinch said, won’t be the determining factor in his return as much as the approach and the at-bats.
“I think we need less people in his ear,” Hinch said. “I think we need less [of him checking the] iPad [for video of his at-bats]. I think we just need to clear his head and get him back to seeing the ball, hit it, have a plan, execute the plan — and then the success will follow. He’s too good a hitter for us to just continue to let him grind at this level and not reach the desired results.”
The Tigers will mix and match at first base in the meantime. In addition to Castro, Jeimer Candelario will move over from third base from time to time, with Willi Castro getting starts at third. Kody Clemens also saw starts at first base earlier this month and could return from Toledo later this week.