The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
ARIZONA STATE’S TORKELSON GOES NO. 1 OVERALL
NEW YORK — 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.
The next players selected were Arkansas outfielder Heston Kjerstad, taken with the second pick by Baltimore; Minnesota RHP Max Meyer (Marlins); Texas A&M LHP Asa Lacy (Royals); Vanderbilt shortstop Austin Martin (Blue Jays); and Georgia RHP Emerson Hancock, taken sixth overall by the Mariners. The Braves had the No. 25 overall pick in the first round.
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.
Manfred announced the first-round selections. 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, Torkelson had long been linked to the Tigers with the top pick. Martin and Lacy were also believed to be in the mix, but Torkelson, 20, 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 former Atlanta Brave 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 was to be completed late Wednesday, along with eight competitive balance round selections — 37 picks in all. Rounds 2-5 will be held tonight, 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.