DETROIT — A.J. Hinch was not subtle when speaking with reporters Saturday in New York. Spencer Torkelson, the Detroit Tigers’ struggling first baseman, had been demoted to the No. 7 spot in the batting order.
“You see him steadily moving down in the order,” Hinch said, “and the next stop is next to me. We’re trying to keep supporting him because he’s a good player. But he’s not in a good spot.”
Torkelson entered the day with only six hits in his past 40 at-bats. He then went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts, compounding the complaints from fans and critics. He finally showed signs of life with two hits Sunday, including a big RBI double in the seventh inning.
In the bigger picture, though, Torkelson’s struggles have been perplexing. He is a No. 1 pick who hit 31 home runs last season. He has an athletic build, a mechanically sound swing and an even-keel demeanor. Yet the more pitches Torkelson watches go by and the more balls he botches in the field, the more questions and concerns arise. Torkelson entered Sunday with 1,224 plate appearances in his major-league career. And despite his power breakthrough last season, he is hitting only .220 with a .684 OPS for his career.
He’s off to a brutally slow start for a third consecutive season. What’s eating Spencer Torkelson? Here’s an attempt to understand:
Middle-middle pitches
One of the surface criticisms often seen on social media is that it feels as though Torkleson lets too many middle-middle pitches go by. In truth, Torkelson is swinging at 77 percent of middle-middle pitches. That is higher than Riley Greene’s 69 percent.
Torkelson, however, has failed to do damage on the most hittable of pitches. He has whiffed at 9 percent of middle-middle pitches. He has put 18 of 43 middle-middle pitches in play and averaged an exit velocity of only 91 mph with a 13-degree launch angle. He is credited with a hard hit — a ball with an exit velocity of 95 mph or greater — on 10 of those 18 batted balls but has only produced one barrel, defined as a ball where the combination of exit velocity and launch angle leads to a minimum .500 expected batting average and 1.500 slugging percentage.
Torkelson overall has a 16.3 percent popup rate, the fifth highest in the league. When pitchers have made mistakes, Torkleson has not taken advantage, which makes his weak points all the more glaring.
Handling outside pitches
Torkelson came through the minors hailed for his ability to cover the whole plate. During his time in the major leagues, we’ve seen that ability only rarely. In 2022, Torkleson struggled to turn on inside pitches. He began leaning into his pull-side power last season, but now he has been totally exposed on the outer third of the plate. Torkelson is getting pitched heavily down and away and has a negative run value on all three boxes on the outer third of the strike zone — though he did double off an outside sweeper Sunday against New York Yankees left-hander Nestor Cortes.
The graphics tell the story clearly:
(Graphics via Baseball Savant)
“I know he’s gonna come out of it,” Greene said. “I feel like no one is worried about him. Just stay positive, be a good teammate and just help him out when I can.”
Struggles against fastballs
Opposing pitchers have been unafraid to attack Torkelson with fastballs. Torkelson is seeing fastballs on 53.7 percent of pitches, and he is hitting only .197 with a .262 slugging percentage against them.
Anecdotally, Torkelson has simply struggled to be on time. It’s another puzzler because there’s no glaring mechanical flaw causing Torkelson to be late. If anything, people around the Tigers wish Torkelson would be more athletic and less mechanical in the box. Despite his timing issues, Torkelson has never implemented a leg kick or any other sort of noticeable timing mechanism. Even when he gets his front foot down early, his bat seems to lag behind.
Fastballs are the root of his struggles, but he’s also been caught…
This article was originally published by a theathletic.com . Read the Original article here. .