Tork heating up just in time for Opening Day

LAKELAND, Fla. -- The sound of the impact echoed through the quiet of the Tigers’ Spring Training clubhouse Sunday morning, like someone pounding on the floor.

It wasn’t the sound of extra hitting. It was the sound of a wooden hammer on leather as Spencer Torkelson broke in a new first baseman’s glove. He was getting it ready after dropping a throw Friday against the Phillies with a different glove.

“That one had its chance,” Torkelson joked on Saturday.

While some infielders will use one glove for multiple seasons, Torkelson isn’t that particular. He doesn’t need long to break in a glove. He has his tricks, such as closing it around some baseballs, wrapping it and tucking it underneath a mattress. But sometimes, just pummeling it is the simple way to get ready.

It’s a method fitting of his hitting style. While Torkelson is getting his gloves ready, the bat is rounding into form, despite some of the Spring Training numbers. The triple Torkelson hit off Joker Marchant Stadium’s center-field fence in Saturday’s 11-6 win over the Yankees was a good example.

It was the relatively uncommon case of a long drive to center that would’ve been a home run at Comerica Park but wasn’t one elsewhere. The 424-foot drive off a fastball from Yankees No. 14 prospect Clayton Beeter would’ve been a home run in every Major League park except Coors Field and Chase Field, according to Statcast. It was Torkelson’s longest ball in a Statcast-connected park this spring, and the second-longest such ball by any Tiger behind Andrew Navigato’s 429-foot homer March 9 against the Pirates.

It was part of a three-hit day for Torkelson that nearly doubled his Grapefruit League hit total. After Sunday's 3-2 win over the Rays, he's batting .146 (7-for-48) with no homers, three doubles and six RBIs, but he’s feeling better than the numbers.

“I had a really good offseason, felt really good coming into spring,” Torkelson said. “Swing has felt really good the entire spring, just really couldn’t catch up or feel what I wanted to feel in games, which is sometimes frustrating, but you just have to look at it for what it is. But [Saturday] felt like the timing clicked. I feel ready for the season.”

Torkelson has been through this before. He went 1-for-27 in his first Spring Training in 2021, a camp better known for the thumb injury he suffered trying to open a can of salsa. He had a slow start to last Spring Training before heating up over the final couple weeks. He has had Spring Trainings where hard-hit balls go unrewarded and other work shows in lagging indicators.

“I’m still learning myself throughout Spring Training about what I need to focus on to get right as fast as possible,” Torkelson said. “It would probably be timing, because the approach was always there. Confidence never left.”

The key, Torkelson said, was getting his timing against fastballs, like the 95 mph heater he got Saturday on the triple. He crushed fastballs last year for 17 of his 31 homers, and his average exit velocity of 94.6 mph off fastballs ranked third highest among Major League hitters who hit at least 250 such pitches.

Torkelson is bracing for the adjustment; he hit 11 homers off breaking balls last year but also batted .210 against them with a 32.2-percent whiff rate. He also hit .148 against offspeed pitches. But he doesn’t want to ignore his strength -- that’s the balance he’s trying to strike.

“I’ve handled the heater. I’ve shown that I can spit on the stuff away,” Torkelson said. “And now it’s up to their third or fourth pitch to get me out. It’s a little more complicated approach, but I also have to just stick with what I can do and let them make a mistake.”

As Opening Day in Chicago nears, the bat is getting warm and ready to do damage. As for the glove, it’s getting there.