Early look at Detroit Tigers' choices with No. 1 overall pick in 2020 MLB draft

Though the 2020 MLB draft is more than three months away, one local college team received an early-season look at the top two candidates who might interest the Detroit Tigers at No. 1 overall.

On Friday night, the Michigan baseball team faced off against Vanderbilt junior infielder Austin Martin in the MLB4 collegiate tournament in Scottsdale, Arizona. The next night, the Wolverines faced off against Arizona State first baseman Spencer Torkelson.

As the college baseball season begins, the two are at the top of the pack. New Mexico State sophomore second baseman Nick Gonzales and a pair of pitchers — Georgia junior right-hander Emerson Hancock and Texas A&M lefty Asa Lacy — round out what arguably is the top five in the country.

Martin, 6-foot and 170 pounds, at one point was ranked by Perfect Game as the top draft prospect in 2020; the versatile, athletic infielder is currently playing third base for Vandy, but many believe his professional home will be in center field, where he played last summer for the U.S. national college team.

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In two seasons with the Commodores, Martin is a .364 hitter. He hit .387 with 10 home runs and 46 RBI in 2019 as they beat Michigan for the NCAA Division I championship.

“Austin is as competitive as any player that we have had at Vanderbilt," coach Tim Corbin said on the website. "He loves and survives in the arena of competition and does not back down. He could virtually play any position on the field and play it well — he is very instinctual and keeps the game simple.”

Torkelson, however, is the odds-on favorite to be picked No. 1 by the Tigers. He checks off two of their biggest needs: an elite power hitter, and a first baseman of the future.

Torkelson has been destined for the top of the draft since he arrived on campus in Tempe. In his first season, he broke Barry Bonds’ freshman home run record nearly halfway through the season.

He is ranked by Baseball America as the top draft prospect in 2020; his righty power swing reminds some talent evaluators of Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant, and his athleticism is said to be overshadowed by his awesome power.

In 2019, Torkelson hit .351 with 23 home runs and 66 RBI. He already has hit two home runs in three games this season.

“There’s a lot to like on either one of those players," said Baseball America national writer Teddy Cahill, who was on hand in Scottsdale over the weekend.

Though Hancock and Lacy will be given consideration — and Gonzales, the reigning NCAA batting champion, as well — the Tigers’ needs approaching their contending years call for impact offense. Already with a strong stable of pitchers, it’s hard to see the organization passing on Martin or Torkelson, or, in Gonzales' case, an undersized second baseman (5-10, 190).

From Cahill’s perspective, the two featured players are “half a step” ahead of Gonzales, a sophomore who was named the Most Valuable Player of the Cape Cod League last summer.

But from a logical perspective, the Tigers have been waiting for quite some time to get their hands on a difference-maker like Torkelson, who Cahill said has "just been destroying baseballs since he showed up.”

Contact Anthony Fenech: afenech@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @anthonyfenech. Read more on the Detroit Tigers and sign up for our Tigers newsletter.