NEW YORK (AP) — The Detroit Tigers selected Arizona State slugger Spencer Torkelson with the No. 1 pick Wednesday night in the Major League Baseball amateur draft.
The baseball-bashing Torkelson played first base in college, but was announced as a third baseman by Commissioner Rob Manfred.
After having the majors’ worst record last season, Detroit opened the draft for the second time in three years. The Tigers took Auburn right-hander Casey Mize in 2018, and now they’ve got a powerful bat that could anchor their lineup for years to come to go along with an arm they hope is a future ace.
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This year’s draft was originally scheduled to be held for the first time in Omaha, Nebraska, as a lead-in to the College World Series. Instead, the coronavirus pandemic caused baseball to make some drastic changes, including holding the draft as a remote event — much like the NFL did in April — and shortening it from three days with 40 rounds to just two days and five rounds.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred announced the first-round selections, as he has done since taking over for Bud Selig in 2015. Manfred also addressed racial injustice and the recent protests that have taken place all around the country and the world. All 30 team representatives, operating remotely, held up signs at the beginning of the broadcast that read: “Black Lives Matter. United For Change.”
The shortened college and high school baseball seasons presented unique challenges for big league scouting departments, which had to rely more on videos of players instead of attending games to help with their evaluations.
Despite all that, the 20-year-old Torkelson had long been linked to the Tigers with the top pick. Vanderbilt infielder Austin Martin and Texas A&M left-hander Asa Lacy were also believed to be in the mix, but the 6-foot-1, 220-pound Torkelson was too good to pass up for Detroit.
With power to all fields and a great eye at the plate, Torkelson established himself as college baseball’s top slugger after going undrafted out of high school. He hit 54 home runs at Arizona State, finishing two shy of Bob Horner’s school record — a mark Torkelson would have likely obliterated if his college season hadn’t been canceled after just 17 games because of the pandemic. The Petaluma, California, native hit .340 with six homers and 11 RBIs this year.
The Tigers’ selection of Torkelson marked the second straight year a college position player was taken with the first pick after Baltimore chose Oregon State catcher Adley Rutschman last year. It’s the first time that has happened since Milwaukee took North Carolina catcher B.J. Surhoff in 1985 and Pittsburgh selected Arkansas third baseman Jeff King a year later.
The first round of the draft will be completed, along with eight competitive balance round selections, on Wednesday night — 37 picks in all. Rounds 2-5 will be held Thursday night, for a total of 160 players selected.
Undrafted players will need to wait until Sunday before they can sign with major league teams, who can offer signing bonuses only up to $20,000 as agreed upon by Major League Baseball and the players’ association. That could prompt many players to instead go back to school or junior college and be eligible again for the draft next year — when big league teams can cap it at 20 rounds if they choose.
Houston will have to wait a while before it makes its first picks after being stripped of its first- and second-round selections by Manfred as part of the team’s punishment for breaking rules against using electronics to steal signs during games. The Astros get started with pick No. 72, which they received as compensation for the loss of pitcher Gerrit Cole, who signed as a free agent with the New York Yankees.
Boston lost its second-round pick for violating rules against in-game use of video to identify pitch signals.
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