The Tigers are expected to conclude an agreement with the general team n. ° 1 Spencer Torkelson Before the resumption of training camps, Jason Beck of MLB.com writes. Detroit News’ Lynn Henning tweets that Torkelson is expected to sign his deal as early as Sunday and that he is likely to receive a bonus slightly north of his $ 8,415,300 value. Jim Callis of MLB.com notes that the Tigers can pay up to $ 8,441,985 without being penalized with the loss of future selections.
Torkelson is considered one of the best bats to come out of the draft in decades. The 21-year-old recorded an otherworldly .337 / .463 / .729 with 54 home runs, 33 doubles and a BB / K ratio of 110 to 104 in 628 plate appearances as Arizona’s first regular baseman. The 20-year-old slugger has long been the favorite to reach No. 1 overall in this year’s draft and is viewed as a quick hitter who could be a fixture in the middle of a major league lineup for years to come. . Baseball America has already ranked him as the game’s No. 11 overall prospect in his updated Top 100 list, and Torkelson now registers at No. 38 in Eric Longenhagen’s updated FanGraphs rankings.
While Torkelson is unlikely to be brought to the big leagues this season, of course, Beck notes that the club is still considering at least Torkelson for his group of 60 players who are due to report to MLB on Sunday night. Placing Torkelson in that group would give him some development opportunities in spring training restarted and then with players from the roster not active during the relaunched 2020 season. Torkelson can obviously be placed on that list without being added to the 40-man roster and would get no service time simply for being in the 60-player pool, so the Tigers have few downsides to including him.
Tigers GM Al Avila announced earlier this week that the club had signed the Competitive Balance selection Daniel Cabrera, and the club has also announced agreements with the second-round selection Dillon Dinglerthird round selection Trei Cruzfourth round Gage Workman and fifth round selection Keith foal. Torkelson is the only unmarked player among the group, but it looks like he will put on paper and officially begin his professional career in the near future.
