At some point on Friday, Spencer Torkelson will step to the plate in Detroit’s Comerica Park for his first Major League at-bat, after the Tigers announced their top prospect will make the Opening Day roster. That debut will be the culmination of a life in baseball and his biggest by far … well, at least to this point.

To understand how the 22-year-old first baseman got to this point, let’s revisit a timeline of some of Torkelson’s best moments in the sport:

A freshman on fire
If you can imagine it, Torkelson went undrafted out of Casa Grande High School in Petaluma, Calif., in 2017. Instead, he headed to Arizona State, where it wasn’t a guarantee that he was going to start as a freshman. He did, of course, and put together one of the best freshman campaigns in recent college baseball history. Consider this: the Sun Devils' freshman home-run record was set by Barry Bonds in 1983. The all-time home run king hit 11 homers in his first spring on campus. Torkelson destroyed that record with 25 homers as a freshman. He also led all NCAA Division I sluggers with that total and finished one shy of the all-time NCAA freshman record. A Golden Spikes semifinalist already, Torkelson didn’t just put himself on the radar in the spring of 2018; he put himself squarely in the middle of it.

Summer ball stints
The right-handed slugger parlayed that early success into experiences in the Cape Cod Baseball League and with the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team in 2018 and '19. He was especially solid playing for Chatham on the Cape that first summer, where he hit .333/.472/.704 with seven homers and 20 walks in 25 games -- a season that was split between his month-long run with Team USA. He was teammates with fellow Top 100 prospects Adley Rutschman, Josh Jung and Bryson Stott on that club, though he oddly spent most of his time in the outfield. Torkelson managed only one extra-base hit in 12 games in that first USA look (though he did hit .286 with a .422 OBP) but looked much more like himself the following summer with a .260/.361/.440 line and a team-best two homers in 14 contests. Besides his ability to handle the level of competition, Torkelson’s performance in those summers proved his impressive power could translate to wood bats as well, answering one big question ahead of the 2020 Draft.

No. 1 overall pick
Torkelson continued to dominate as a sophomore at ASU (.351/.446/.707, 23 homers in 57 games) and was off to another hot start (.340/.598/.780, six homers in 17 games) in the spring of 2020 before the coronavirus pandemic led to a cancelation of the NCAA season. Even with his status as a first baseman, the Sun Devil had shown more than enough with his bat before the shutdown to make him MLB Pipeline’s No. 1 overall prospect in the 2020 Draft. The Tigers agreed, selected Torkelson at the No. 1 spot and signed him to a record $8,416,300 bonus ($1,000 above slot for the pick). Detroit shocked some by announcing Torkelson as a third baseman on Draft Night, and while he’s transitioned back across the diamond in pro ball, he became the first corner infielder to go first overall since Adrian Gonzalez in 2000. He was also the first collegian to go from undrafted out of high school to the top of the Draft after playing collegiately since the University of Nebraska's Darin Erstad in 1995.

The future in one home run derby
Without a Minor League season in 2020, Torkelson moved to Detroit’s alternate training site in Erie, Pa., to begin his professional career and finished out the year at the club’s instructional league setting. It was there that the Tigers put the potential heart of their lineup on display with a home run derby between Torkelson and fellow top prospect Riley Greene. The 2019 first-rounder edged out his '20 counterpart by one homer, per Lynn G. Henning, but even pairing the two in such a competition was a sign that the Tigers knew how much of their rebuild would revolve around both Greene and Torkelson -- a notion that would be confirmed a year later.

A dominant stretch at High-A
Torkelson got off to a 1-for-27 start in the Grapefruit League during his first Spring Training and was assigned to High-A West Michigan out of the gate. Playing in the cold of the Midwest League, the corner infielder took a while to warm up in May, though he did collect a two-homer game on May 29, the first of his career. His true breakout came in a seven-game span from June 5-12 in which he went 14-for-25 (.560) with eight extra-base hits, four walks and only four strikeouts. Over that time, his West Michigan OPS jumped from .828 to 1.011. He received his first Minor League promotion to Double-A Erie on June 13.

Futures Game participation
As the reigning No. 1 overall pick and a Top 5 overall prospect, Torkelson made for an easy selection to the All-Star Futures Game in Denver on July 11. He started at third base and batted eighth for the American League -- a spot in the lineup he’s unlikely to see ever again. The Tigers prospect performed up to expectations by going 1-for-2 with a walk while playing the entire game in the AL’s 8-3, seven-inning loss. Torkelson's one knock -- a seventh-inning single to left off Brewers left-hander Ethan Small -- came off the bat at 106.8 mph for the fifth-highest exit velocity of the prospect showcase. He, Greene and Austin Martin were the only AL representatives to reach multiple times in the shortened contest.

A perfect day at the ballpark
That seven-game stretch in June was a sign Torkelson was ready for a new challenge. He needed only one big day to prove the same on Aug. 12 while with Double-A Erie. Playing in a doubleheader at home against Altoona, the Tigers’ top prospect went a combined 7-for-7 with three homers, six RBIs and five runs scored. He did not walk or strike out in any of his seven plate appearances, meaning it was a lot of contact on the day and a lot of loud contact as well. Three days later, Torkelson received his second (and final) promotion of the season, this time moving to Triple-A Toledo.

Two-homer games everywhere
As was the case at other spots previously, Torkelson needed some time to grow into the Triple-A level and hit just .177 with a .651 OPS over his first 13 games with the Mud Hens. (The biggest development in that time might have been that he had locked into first base after previously splitting time at both corners.) That 14th game, however, saw him go deep twice at Omaha on Sept. 1. That was notable because it meant Torkelson enjoyed multihomer games with each of the three Detroit affiliates in his first full season. The others came on May 29 with West Michigan and the nightcap of the aforementioned Aug. 12 doubleheader with Erie.

The 30th homer
Does the crossing of certain statistical thresholds really matter? Probably not. Does it look a whole nicer on a baseball card or online player page? You betcha. So it certainly popped that Torkelson notched his 30th (and final) homer of the season in his last game with Toledo on Oct. 3. Those 30 homers were the most among any 2021 Draft picks, beating out Brewers fourth-rounder Joey Wiemer’s 27. Torkelson was one of 15 Minor Leaguers to finish with 30-plus homers and, playing in his age-21 season, was the third-youngest member of the 15. Only Bobby Witt Jr. and Andy Pages were younger, and both had at least some Minor League experience entering 2021.

The call
Tigers manager A.J. Hinch indicated as early as last season that Detroit was planning on Torkelson being its first baseman of the future, and a strong spring in 2022 only helped the case that that future was now. Two-time MVP Miguel Cabrera, previously the club’s starting first baseman who will move to a full-time DH role, was involved in breaking the news to Torkelson that he would be on the club’s Opening Day roster -- a gesture that clearly touched the 22-year-old prospect. With plus power and an advanced approach at the plate, expect a whole lot of big moments to follow from Torkelson’s time in Motor City.