Meet Spencer Torkelson: Arizona State HR king may be Detroit Tigers' No. 1 draft pick

LAKELAND, Fla. — With the first selection of the 2020 MLB draft, the Detroit Tigers select…

Maybe, it will be Austin Martin, a shortstop from Vanderbilt – he can hit and play darn near everywhere on the field.

Or maybe it will be Emerson Hancock, a Georgia flamethrower – he is a fantastic talent, and he would be the no-brainer pick, if the Tigers didn’t have so many strong pitching prospects and such a glaring need for a bat.

So here is my preseason prediction (subject to change, of course): the Tigers will take Spencer Torkelson, a home-run king from Arizona State, who has bashed 48 home runs in his first two seasons of college ball.

The Sun Devils will open their season tonight against Villanova. Arizona State will play Michigan on Saturday night in Phoenix.

“Michigan is down here for a tournament, so they are gonna pick up an extra game and play Saturday night, which awesome,” Torkelson said. “It will be nice to play a real solid, well-known opponent opening weekend.”

So who is Spencer Torkelson?

He grew up in Petaluma, California, and he’s been hitting his entire life. Literally.

“It started when I was like 4 years old, walking around with a Wiffle bat, asking people to pitch to me,” Hancock said. “I loved Little League, never missed a practice. Just always loved baseball. I started playing travel ball and I was really fortunate to have very good coaches growing up.”

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He hit his first home run when he was 9, playing up on the 10-year-old all-star team.

“It was a 200-foot fence and a juiced bat,” he said and laughed. “But I still count it.”

Of course you count it.

A home run is a home run. And his ability to be just that is the reason he is the No. 1 college prospect, according to Baseball America. But he would be the first right-handed first baseman to be the first pick overall in MLB history.

The mental approach of the game

Torkelson learned his hitting approach from Joey Gomes, a batting instructor who made it to Double-A. Torkelson used to train – sometimes in the same batting cage – with Andrew Vaughn, who was taken third overall by the Chicago White Sox in the 2019 MLB draft.

“Joey wasn’t huge on mechanics – obviously not,” Torkelson said. “Me and Vaughn have completely different types of swings. He was big on the mental approach to the game. We were in high school – (Vaughn) was a junior and I was a freshman in high school. And Joey would talk about what it’s like in pro ball. What the hitters are like. What his brother, Jonny (Gomes), was telling him. We got that perspective. He never talked about college. He would talk about two levels up. He was like, ‘College is going to happen. You are going to pro ball.’

“Having the mental approach and maturity of the game at a young age was really helpful.”

When he was 15, Torkelson was invited to try out for USA Baseball.

“I got cut from that team,” he said. “It was kind of devastating. But I bounced back quick. I finally made the USA Team my freshman year of college.”

He was a four-year varsity starter in high school, hitting 11 home runs in 110 varsity games. But that stat is deceiving.

“At my high school, it’s 315 feet to left field,” he said. “But there were 30-to 40-m.p.h. winds coming in from left field every day. I’m not even exaggerating. You probably have to hit a ball 450 feet, equivalent, to left field to put it out. I’m not kidding. People look at my high school numbers and say, ‘Oh, you didn’t have power in high school.’

"I did have power. I played at the wrong field.”

He laughed: “I guess that kind of helped my opposite-field power, too.”

He was rated as the No. 32 overall player in California. But he didn’t expect to start when he was a freshman at Arizona State.

"I remember a week before the season and I was at lunch with my buddy, Connor Higgins, who is now in the Angels organization, and Hunter Bishop," Torkelson said. "They told me this a couple of months ago. They said, ‘A week before the season, you were like, ‘Bro, I don’t know if I’m going to play.’ They kind of laughed. I was serious. I was some naive freshman and didn’t know what was going to go on and didn’t know how skip worked.”

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He played designated hitter in the first game of his career. And opportunity knocked in Game 2.

“I hit two (home runs) and the first baseman who was a junior ended up getting hurt that first game," Vaughn said. "The next game, I was at first base and started there every game since.”

He became a unanimous All-American and, in just 55 games, led the country with 25 home runs – two more than any other player and just one shy of the NCAA freshman record.

Also of note, he broke the Sun Devil freshman record of 11 home runs set by Barry Bonds in 1983.

“Honestly, it hasn’t hit me still," Torkelson said. "People are like, ‘oh my gosh, you broke Barry Bonds home run record as a freshman.' And I’m like, ‘yeah, I did but it hasn’t clicked.’ I’m still waiting.”

Already feeling the draft?

A year ago, Torkelson hit in front of Bishop, who was selected with the 10th overall pick in the 2019 MLB draft by the San Francisco Giants.

“Last year was really fun, especially because our team was better and I had Hunter Bishop hitting behind me,” said Torkelson, who hit 23 home runs – the fifth most in the nation. “That’s always good, when you have a guy who went 10th overall hitting behind you. He had an amazing year, a breakout season, and that was really fun to experience with him.”

More than that, Bishop taught Torkelson how to handle the pressure of the draft.

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“Bishop handled it really well,” Torkelson said. “He literally didn’t say a word about it. If you walked into the clubhouse and didn’t know anything about it, you wouldn’t know. He just focused on the team winning.”

And that is how Torkelson wants to approach this season.

He doesn’t want to talk about the draft.

No, he wants to focus on his team.

“Bishop wasn’t worried," Torkelson said. "He knew he didn’t have much control over it. The only thing he could control was him working hard and having fun and focusing on winning. That’s what I took away from it and it was huge.”

'Fortnite is my game'

Torkelson is an all-around athlete, who played running back and outside linebacker in high school football for four years.

“I was pretty good, yeah," he said. "I miss high school football. Because Friday nights were awesome but baseball is my favorite, it will always be my favorite.”

He has played first base at Arizona State, but scouts believe he has the athleticism to play third or corner outfield.

“My thoughts are on the team,” Torkelson said. “We have a great team, great pitching staff, solid defense and an experienced lineup. I think we have a great shot at making it to Omaha (for the College World Series). All my thoughts are on winning a national championship.”

He describes himself as laid back, just a normal college kid who loves video games.

“Fortnite is my game,” He said. “I enjoy just handing out with the guys, playing ping pong. We have a ping pong table in the clubhouse. I like to think I’m the best ping pong player in the clubhouse. Some guys might have some words about that. But yeah, I enjoy working out. Just super simple. Nothing crazy.”

Yep. Just your typical college kid, who could end up being the first pick in the draft.

Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @seideljeff. To read his recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/jeff-seidel/.