It wasn’t the best Spring Training for Detroit Tigers 2020 1st overall draft pick Spencer Torkelson. And for GM Al Avila, there’s no reason to panic.
“We’re gonna leave spring training behind us, both us as a team and him as a player,” Hinch said Tuesday morning, before the Tigers’ final spring training game. “The longer he carries this spring with him, the less productive it’s going to be for him.”
His final stats for Spring Training were .038 batting average, .167 on-base percentage, one hit and 16 strikeouts in 26 at-bats. Not the best stat line, but they’re going about it as if it didn’t happen.
“We’ve been relatively lighthearted about it — this doesn’t count,” Hinch said. “No one’s ever going to really think about this after today, and I hope he takes that mindset to flush the bag down the toilet and move on and get to his season, wherever that’s going to start. Obviously, it’s given him some baseline on things that he needs to work on. And he was just never really able to get underway and get some success back to back to back days and things like that. So the change of scenery will do him fine.”
Torkelson is now expected to join Detroit’s new Single-A site, West Michigan.
“I’m not worried about Tork in the least bit,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “He needs to work on some things like every player does, but I’m not sure that we need to put a microscope on him in his spring training games in Lakeland and label him as anything other than any young player who’s trying to find his way.”
– – Quotes via Jeff Seidel of The Detroit Free Press Link – –
