Detroit Tigers' Spencer Torkelson refused to look at scoreboard in Year 2: It worked

Detroit Tigers first baseman Spencer Torkelson, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 draft, refused to look at his results on the scoreboard for most of his second season. Focusing on his process, rather than his results, fostered his confidence and helped him realize he belongs in the big leagues.

Torkelson, who struggled as a rookie in his first season, stayed disciplined in his process-oriented approach throughout his sophomore campaign. The 24-year-old took a much-needed step toward becoming an All-Star-caliber player, but to get there, he still has work to do.

"The biggest thing in the process is getting away from results," said Torkelson, who launched 31 home runs in 2023. "As soon as you separate yourself from the results, it's amazing the weight that's lifted off your shoulders. Throughout the year, I felt the pressure of not having a result, and then I snapped out of it by thinking about what I can control."

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The 31-homer season began in the offseason, following a disappointing rookie season in which he hit just .203 with eight home runs in 110 games and needed a demotion to Triple-A Toledo. Torkelson installed a weight room in his garage to add strength, tweaked his swing mechanics slightly to hit middle-middle fastballs and switched to a shorter and lighter bat to aid control and acceleration.

Most importantly, Torkelson hired a mental performance coach for weekly, hour-long Zoom meetings. He latched onto the power of visualization and used the new tool to mentally rehearse his performances in daily 15-minute sessions.

Torkelson learned about defense mechanisms, too. (Common defense mechanisms include denial and repression.) He figured out how to trick his brain with positive thoughts to overcome negative vibes.

"I realized that's completely normal," Torkelson said. "It's just about how you counteract it. Sometimes, you don't believe in yourself. That's just your brain trying to defend you. It's kind of messed up, but that's the way the brain is wired."

Take an 0-for-4 performance as an example.

In the 2023 season, Torkelson leaned heavily on his pregame routine, feedback routine and post-at-bat routine. His new post-at-bat routine played the biggest role in getting away from the results and leaning into the process.

After every plate appearance, whether it ended in a home run or a three-pitch strikeout, Torkelson would return to the dugout and ask himself three questions: What did I do well? What could I have done better? What can I do to make things better next at-bat?

"You always have to find something you did well because your brain listens to you," Torkelson said. "You're going to look back after an 0-for-4 game, and you're going to have at least four things that you did well. The 0-for-4 would tell you that you did zero things well, but find something positive to build on, and then find the negative of the day and learn from that."

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His routines, including the pivotal post-at-bat routine, were parts of his day that he could control regardless of the results on the field. Sticking to those routines helped him survive the first two months of the season as one of the unluckiest hitters in baseball.

He had been hammering middle-middle fastballs, as well as other pitches, with elite exit velocities since the beginning of spring training, but he wasn't getting an abundance of hits or home runs.

Manager A.J. Hinch appreciated Torkelson's patience in his process.

"What I think Tork did to take the next step forward is connect everything that he does in the cage, in the weight room, in the training room and in the dugout," Hinch said. "Things that he was doing as he trained started to impact his setup, and the setup led to the decision-making, and the decision-making led to picking the right pitches, and then the process of review allowed him to get through that grind."

From June 12 and on, Torkelson hit .237 with 26 home runs and an .816 OPS in his final 97 games. (He hit .225 with five homers and a .666 OPS in his first 62 games.)

His hard-hit rate ranked in the 94th percentile, his barrel rate ranked in the 89th percentile, and his average exit velocity ranked in the 87th percentile.

Torkelson said his "natural swing" took over when he figured out his rhythm and timing in mid-June. The mental cue "dancing with the pitcher" helped him get his body into the optimal position to swing. Suddenly, deep flyouts kept flying for home runs.

"I was hammering balls and had nothing to really show for it," Torkelson said. "I had something where I was like, 'I'm doing a lot of good here, so let's just trust it. What's the worst that can happen?' It's not being scared of the worst thing that can happen."

New hitting coaches Michael Brdar, Keith Beauregard and James Rowson were critical to his development. Scouting reports about opposing pitchers were simplified in team meetings, and then individualized for all players.

Torkelson formed the closest relationship with Brdar. He feels like Brdar understands him on a deeper level, both as a hitter and as a person. They share a passion for mental performance skills and sent each other motivational Kobe Bryant videos throughout the season.

The pregame routine he adopted under Brdar's watch featured three questions: What am I hitting well right now? What am I not hitting well right now? What is the pitcher's best pitch?

Torkelson shared an example of his findings.

"Having that conversation with the hitting coaches, it's like, 'All right, we're hammering heaters on the inside half, but we're not doing well on the outer half, and we're taking too many offspeed pitches in the zone.' You can kind of develop your own scouting report against yourself to have in your head. You're not hitting off analytics. You're not like, 'Oh, it's a 50% chance he's going to throw a fastball away here,' because they're going to make mistakes, but it's accepting your weakness in that moment and counteracting it."

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The Tigers learned Torkelson is capable of being their first baseman of the future because of his results — driven by his process — in the 2023 season, but the Tigers are still waiting to find out if Torkelson can grow into a superstar and franchise player.

He played 159 games and hit .233 with 31 home runs, 94 RBIs, 67 walks (9.8% walk rate) and 171 strikeouts (25% strikeout rate). Both his .758 OPS and 107 wRC+ ranked 34th among 41 players with at least 650 plate appearances.

To become a superstar, Torkelson needs to develop into a better all-around hitter. Getting there will be determined by his swing path, game planning and in-game decisions. Sometimes, Torkelson didn't have quality plate appearances because he abandoned the ideal plan in search of power to the pull side.

"For me, it's taking a step back before the at-bat and saying, 'Why am I trying to hit this ball 500 feet?'" Torkelson said. "When I try to hit the ball 200 feet, it ends up going 400 feet anyway, so it's slowing the heart rate down and getting more used to those situations, however many times I have to visualize those situations. I definitely haven't been as good as I want to be, but that's something that is going to help this team win."

He popped up 10% of his balls in play during the season, more than league average by 3%. He got back to crushing fastballs but had a sub-.200 expected batting average against sliders for the second year in a row. He hit .208 with runners in scoring position and .083 with the bases loaded.

He also needs to clean up his defense at first base.

There were a lot of positives, but Torkelson has room for improvement before the third season of his MLB career gets underway. That's a positive within itself because it means he's not a finished product.

"It definitely is rewarding to see a lot of work pay off, and it's more motivation heading into next year," Torkelson said. "I want to get better. We got eliminated from the playoffs with eight games left. Those eight games that we lost maybe weren't completely my fault, but maybe we had a runner on third with less than two outs, and I didn't get the job done and we lost the game by a run. It's little things like that."

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Next step for Detroit Tigers' Spencer Torkelson: Be all-around hitter