Torkelson returns to the majors, and he has a lot to prove amid another mediocre season in Detroit

It was an exciting weekend for the Detroit Tigers, who took a couple games from the New York Yankees — the latter in walk-off fashion in the Major League Baseball Little League Classic.

More importantly, the first of those victories included the return of Spencer Torkelson, whose next few weeks could say a lot about how much longer Detroit will remain mediocre.

The Tigers haven’t made the postseason since 2014, matching the Los Angeles Angels for baseball’s longest active drought. A lot went wrong to prolong Detroit’s rebuild, particularly the failure to land any future standouts when trading Justin Verlander back in 2017. But the fact is, the Tigers have had the No. 1 overall pick in the draft twice since then, and neither pick did enough to change the team’s fortunes.

In 2018, Detroit picked Casey Mize, who is 9-19 with a 4.28 ERA in 55 career starts. He’s been worth 3.5 wins above replacement according to Baseball Reference. Paul Skenes has been worth more WAR than that in just over three months with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

In 2020, the Tigers selected Torkelson, who seemed to be progressing well enough when he hit 31 homers in 2023. But a year later, he started so poorly he was sent down to the minors in early June. He came back up and hit a double and a triple Saturday.

Detroit is only three games under .500, and it’s easy to imagine how much better they could be if Mize and Torkelson were performing the way other recent No. 1 overall picks — Skenes, Adley Rutschman and Royce Lewis, to name a few — have been able to. After declining to trade Cy Young contender Tarik Skubal at the deadline, the Tigers have a chance to be relevant in 2025.

The question is whether they can upgrade what’s been one of the game’s weaker offenses, and more production from Torkelson would be a big help.