Detroit Tigers: Spencer Torkelson may get taxi squad nod once signed

The Detroit Tigers’ first overall pick, Spencer Torkelson, is almost a sure bet to make the taxi squad.

The Detroit Tigers are in the process of readying a 60-man roster, which will be due by Sunday. The Tigers have their 40-man roster as it is, but they will be adding twenty names onto this, which should be full of prospects from all levels of the organization.

Given the Tigers’ excellent 2020 MLB Draft, a few of the organization’s selections might make it into this taxi squad. The one to be most excited about is Spencer Torkelson, who should be on the Tigers 60-man roster and possibly get put onto the road trip taxi squad.

In an ideal world, the Tigers will give Torkelson some at-bats in the big leagues to get his feet wet. Torkelson is one talented player; he was an incredibly dominant hitter at the college level and allowing him to try and compete at the big league level off the get-go.

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It is not normal for a first-round pick to get to the big leagues immediately after getting drafted.

However, with COVID-19 and tense negotiations, the 2020 Major League Baseball season has brought about some unique scenarios.

The Tigers are not the only team to pursue bringing up their young prospects to get a chance with the taxi squad.

Other teams around the league have been rumored to be bringing up players, some who may not have even made it out of Single-A ball yet. The one thing that stands between Torkelson and the Tigers naming him to the 60-man roster is that he has not been signed yet.

The Tigers have done an excellent job of working with their draft picks to get them signed. The Tigers have come to an agreement with every one of their draft picks except Torkelson.

In a time where there has been a lot of unique situations thrown into the mix, no reason why the Tigers should not be embracing adding the younger players to the 60-man roster. The other variable in this situation is Minor League Baseball.

While Major League Baseball has its 2020 season set, MiLB teams are still in limbo over their 2020 season. So while all is well for the big leaguers, the minor leaguers are still unsure what the 2020 season is going to look like, if it does even end up getting played.

Frankly, it seems that a lack of a 2020 MiLB canceled season would be an even better reason to promote their young minor leaguers to the 60-man roster to allow them to keep developing. Given the current plans for the 2020 season, the extra players from the Tigers organization will still play.

As the season kicks off, the Tigers will take 30 players on their roster, leaving the rest to develop in Toledo (as the plan stands now). There is no reason not to have Spencer Torkelson as a part of this 60-man roster.

Torkelson deserves the chance to keep developing if he is going to be an integral part of this Tigers rebuild. He will not be someone who sits on the active roster and plays every day, but he will get the chance to keep developing alongside other Tigers prospects.

Though Torkelson is most likely going to get his chance to develop alongside future big-league prospects, he is not going to find himself in the Tigers lineup. He may find his way into a Tigers uniform at some point this year to get some at-bats at the big league level.

The Detroit Tigers still have a few days to submit their final 60-man roster, but if Spencer Torkelson is not on it, something is terribly wrong with the front office.