Detroit Tigers Projected to Not Trade Struggling Former Top Prospect
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The Detroit Tigers officially replaced their former first overall pick in their lineup this offseason, but now comes the question to do with the struggling bat.
Bleacher Report's Kerry Miller recently put together a list of predictions for players most involved in trade rumors this offseason. Tigers first baseman Spencer Torkelson is one of those players consistently brought up, especially since being benched.
When Detroit signed Gleyber Torres to man second base, they made the decision to give the starting job at first to Colt Keith instead of Torkelson.
Despite possibly being able to trade him for some assets to help them continue to win this year, Miller predicts that they will hold on to the former first pick.
The 25-year-old is still young and has plenty of room to grow at the plate, which is likely why they don't want to trade him at a low point.
Coming out of college there were hopes that he could become a consistent 30-home run hitter with solid plate discipline.
It didn't take long for the power to translate as he hit 30 homers in the minors in 2021 and hit 31 in 2023 in the Majors.
To tell someone back then that he would already be replaced, some would be in disbelief. While many Tigers found surprise success in 2024, Torkelson was not one of those players.
Over the first couple of months of the year, 54 games from him, the slugger had posted just a .201/.266/.330 slash line with four home runs and 18 RBI.
Nothing was working at the plate for him and he got optioned to Triple-A to find his swing again. His numbers weren't otherworldly down there, but there were at least closer to what Detroit had come to expect.
To Torkelson's credit, he was much more of the player that the Tigers want him to be when he came back from the minors.
In his final 38 games, he slashed .248/.338/.444 with six home runs and 81 RBI. That would put him on pace for a 26 home run season, which is still behind that goal of 30.
Signing Torres will increase their defense at second, while Keith switching over to first will have a potentially higher ceiling.
Keith doesn't have the same power that Torkelson does, but is a more well-rounded batter. It is an experiment, though, and one that could very well not work out.
That is why keeping Torkelson around makes sense, at least until they know they have a sure thing with Keith at first.
The former starting first baseman is still under team control through 2028, so there is no rush to ship him away.
