Detroit Tigers Could Be Making Mistake Moving On From Former Top Prospect Now
By all indications, the Detroit Tigers are going to be aggressive this offseason when it comes to making improvements to their roster after their unlikely postseason run this past October.
One of the areas that was a big problem throughout the season was corner infield, especially first base with Spencer Torkelson struggling through the worst season of his young big league career thus far. Torkelson was sent back down to Triple-A and improved a little bit after he was called back up, but overall the consensus has been it may be time to move on from the 2020 No. 1 overall selection this offseason.
Despite that, Chap Cunningham of Just Baseball thinks while going to a new team may be in the slugger's best interest, now may not be the best time for the team to move him with his value as low as possible and still having some potential to turn it around.
"I believe that a change of scenery for Tork would be a best-case scenario for him," Cunningham wrote. "However, I don’t think it would be wise for the Tigers to move on from him quite yet. His value is as low as it has ever been in his young career as of this moment. On top of that, the first base free agency market could be a tough place to bank on for landing value. Christian Walker would be the best option, assuming Alonso is out of the Tigers’ budget."
Ultimately, the version of Torkelson we got in 2024 before he was sent down is not a player who is capable of having a spot in the lineup. After he was called back up, he showed some flashes of the player Detroit thought they were getting, but still struggled relative to the 2023 version of himself. It's not that he was phenomenal in 2023 with a .233 batting average and a .313 on-base percentage, but his 31 home runs made up for it enough for him to play in 159 games.
The home run numbers plummeted to just 10 in 2024 along with drops in just about every offensive category.
The Tigers must weigh whether or not 2024 was an accurate representation of the type of player Torkelson is. If it was, then they must move on and replace him now regardless of what will be a low return. If Detroit were to keep him and he had another similar season, his value in any sort of future trade drops from low to zero.
