One player who has drawn surprisingly little chatter over the last few months is long-struggling Detroit Tigers’ first baseman, Spencer Torkelson. The former first overall pick had only a few bursts of real success over his first three seasons as a major leaguer. In 2025? He’s leveled up and stabilized his profile as a good, but not great power hitter who has improved his defensive skills and now finally has a lock on the Tigers’ first base job for the foreseeable future.
Throughout his three years and change as a major leaguer, Torkelson’s approach has been remarkably steady considering the widely varying results from year to year. His chase rate is always low. He holds an excellent 21.3 percent chase rate in 2025, just a little better than his career mark of 23.1 percent. His contact rate this year is 77.1 percent against a career mark of 77.0 percent. His swinging strike rate this year is 10.3 percent, once again right at his career mark of 10.5 percent. The same holds true for his chase rate.
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So, the general swing decisions and plate discipline have always been good, and Torkelson’s profile has been bolstered by a career high walk rate of 10.8 percent after averaging 9.7 percent for his career to date. The only major difference for Torkelson this year is that the power is showing up more consistently. He’s getting the ball off the ground and doing so more to all fields than he did in his first few seasons, and more of them are dropping in for hits.
The result has been much more consistent production. By month Torkelson’s wRC+ marks this year are 144 in March/April, 124 in May, 80 in June, 132 in July, and so far in August he’s at 117. Couple that with the best defensive marks of his career, currently a +4 in defensive runs saved (DRS), and 0 outs above average (OAA), and you have a good first baseman worth 2.4 fWAR on the year. With 28 home runs under his belt, Torkelson looks an awful lot like current Houston Astros first baseman, Christian Walker during his Arizona Diamondbacks years.
Torkelson still isn’t hitting right-handed pitching to any great degree. He holds a 107 wRC+ against right-handers. What he has done, is give the Tigers a weapon against left-handed pitching that they really needed. He holds a 157 wRC+ mark against southpaws with a .280 batting average and a .303 isolated power mark, and while we can question why A.J Hinch never pinch hits for him against right-handed pitching the way he would in the opposite platoon scenario with someone like Kerry Carpenter or Colt Keith, Torkelson has held his own enough against right-handers that it isn’t an issue. He’s hitting .224 with a still strong isolated power mark of .212 versus right-handed pitching, and the combination of quality walk rate and good power numbers says he’s at least an effective option in any situation.
If we look for confirmation from Statcast’s expected stats, based on raw contact, selectivity at the plate, and batted ball data, things look pretty stable there as well. Tork has a .345 wOBA on the year, against an expected mark of .348. He’s arguably been a bit unlucky against right-handed pitching, but even in his splits, the gaps between his expected and actual wOBA marks are small.
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Toreklson is also doing well in his primary responsibilty in the lineup; driving in runs. His 70 RBI isn’t mind-blowing, but he’s on track to end up with 80-85 RBI, and he’s posted a 155 wRC+ with men on base, and a 123 wRC+ mark with runners in scoring position. The rest of that is largely about opportunity.
Spencer Torkelson just turned 26 years old a few days ago. With a few seasons of pain under his belt, he appears to have finally learned how to handle the slumps that naturally come along and stay productive enough to avoid any more trips to Toledo for a tune-up. He hasn’t turned into the elite power hitter most hoped for on draft day, but you can do a lot worse than getting an above average power hitting right-handed bat at first base. For a team stacked with left-handed hitters as most of the more dangerous bats, and with left-handed hitters like Kevin McGonigle and Max Clark working on their 2026 ETA, his position in the lineup is going to remain a crucial pivot point for both Hinch and opposing managers.
Just as important is the fact that Torkelson appears to be learning to manage the ups and downs better. Now into what I’d consider his prime years from 25-30 years old, we can hope for a little more progress against right-handed pitching. But overall Torkelson has been a stabilizing presence both in the lineup, and by playing pretty solid defense for an infield that is otherwise below average across the board defensively.
It’s not the dream scenario, but Spencer Torkelson has finally found a level that appears sustainable. We can hope for more, but after entering the 2024 season looking as though his job was in serious jeopardy, the slugger has finally established himself as a consistently good player and a much needed force in the Tigers’ lineup to counter left-handed pitching.