ERIE, Pa. — They share so much in common: Two young hitters with beautiful talents, both players with advanced approaches blended with their sweet swings, a pair of prospects who will shape the next generation of baseball in Detroit.
They are also so different. Riley Greene is a left-handed batter, a 6-foot-3 outfielder filling out his frame more and more by the day. He has tremendous outfield instincts, and he is faster than his pigeon-toed gait suggests. He is a biracial kid from Florida, drafted with the No. 5 pick out of high school. The Tigers knew they were getting a gifted hitter, but Greene has exceeded all expectations to this point in his pro career.
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Spencer Torkelson is a right-handed infielder, listed at 6-foot-1 with a sturdy 220-pound frame. He looks and acts and hits like a ballplayer built in a lab. He is the son of two CPAs, raised in Northern California and educated at Arizona State. He was the No. 1 pick in the 2020 draft, a prodigal hitter always expected to be a sure thing.
Torkelson and Greene are often able to achieve similar results — towering home runs, gap-to-gap doubles, you name it — in starkly different ways.
Greene has the left-handed, high-finish stroke of a baseball artist, shades of Griffey with his own unique load, a timing mechanism where he brings his hands to his ear and then attacks the baseball.
“He’s so whippy with it,” Torkelson said last week. “It’s like a rubber band. He gets it stretched out, and when he swings it just releases, just this crazy, powerful but controlled swing. I couldn’t swing like him.”
Torkelson has the refined swing of a craftsman. He has a low center of gravity. There is minimal pre-pitch movement. Like something out of an instructional video, he brings his barrel directly to the baseball with no wasted effort. He lets his legs and his torso do the work. The simple, minimalist swing can create awesome power.
“His barrel is able to stay in the zone for so long,” Greene said. “He rarely ever misses. He can hit a home run whenever he wants. To be honest, I wouldn’t really want to throw anything to him.”
The difference between the top two prospects in the Detroit Tigers farm system, and two of the best prospects in baseball, is part of what makes their pairing so perfect. As the Detroit Tigers continue their improvement at the major-league level, the two biggest pieces in their rebuild are still on the farm. An infielder and an outfielder, a painter and a sculptor, two boy kings of Erie who keep raking in the minors and who will soon have a chance to do the same in Detroit.
Sunday evening, Torkelson and Greene — along with shortstop Ryan Kreidler — earned promotions from Double-A Erie to Triple-A Toledo. They are one step closer. And everyone wants to know: How quickly will they reach the majors? How soon is too soon? Is there such a thing as soon enough?
It was a sunny Thursday afternoon in Erie, a town of fewer than 100,000 people with lake-effect weather, a community that had to scrap to keep its baseball team this winter after the realignment of the minor leagues.
Now for the second time in three years, the SeaWolves have spent most of the summer as the epicenter of the Tigers’ farm system. In 2019, pitchers Casey Mize, Matt Manning, Tarik Skubal and Alex Faedo were all in Erie. Now the town is hosting Torkelson and Greene, not to mention Kreidler and catcher Dillon Dingler.
In the first inning of the second game of a doubleheader against the Altoona Curve, Greene swung on a high fastball and demolished the ball 414 feet, landing out beyond the center-field wall.
Riley Greene. 3-1 count. Leadoff homer. pic.twitter.com/sPDa0JnYoN
— Cody Stavenhagen (@CodyStavenhagen) August 12, 2021
Kreidler, a fourth-round pick out of UCLA who is also establishing himself as a prospect to watch, hit next. He turned on an inside pitch and sent it to nearly the same spot as Greene’s blast, only farther, a 435-foot blast.
Torkelson was up next, and after Kreidler’s home run, he turned to the dugout and said: “No pressure, right?”
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Torkelson got another pitch over the plate and crushed it to the batter’s eye past the center-field wall. It sailed 419 feet. Back-to-back-to-back home runs.
The string of blasts went viral on Twitter, attracting attention from all over baseball. And yet the damage was not done. Torkelson finished that day’s doubleheader 7-for-7 with three home runs. Greene went 3-for-8 with two home runs.
When these balls left the park, scouts in attendance hardly batted an eye. Everyone knows what Torkelson and Greene can do. This is just further confirmation.
“Both are very driven, and they just want to keep getting better and better,” Erie hitting coach Adam Melhuse said. “They don’t want to just be good players. They want to be All-Star-caliber players.”
The performance seemed like the final bit of evidence that both players were too talented and too advanced to spend the remainder of the summer at Double A. As their hitting coach, Melhuse has spent less time worrying about mechanics and more time helping his two star pupils know their own strengths and how to select the best pitches to hit.
“Where Greene has a very good feel for the strike zone, Torkelson has an extraordinary feel for the strike zone,” Melhuse said.
Tork Bomb in Erie 💣 pic.twitter.com/kPyDh2Pnw7
— Cody Stavenhagen (@CodyStavenhagen) August 12, 2021
Greene is 20 and Torkelson is 21. They are still learning and developing. Torkelson was a college first baseman, but the Tigers are still entertaining the idea of Torkelson learning third. He went 1-for-27 with 16 strikeouts in spring training and had a dismal start to the season in High A before he settled in and started destroying baseballs. Across two levels this season, Torkelson is hitting .282 with a .399 on-base percentage and 19 home runs.
Greene had a 2-for-27 stretch in July but has otherwise been consistent in Erie all year, hitting .296 with 16 homers before his promotion. The left-handed batter is hitting .391 against lefties.
“There’s always room for improvement,” Melhuse said. “But you almost take the initial approach of, ‘Don’t mess ’em up,’ because they’re so talented.”
They first met last summer before workouts began in Detroit. They played catch and got acquainted, then spent the next couple of months together at the alternate training site.
The bromance really blossomed during last fall’s instructional league, when Torkelson would ride in Greene’s F-250 on the way to Joker Marchant Stadium every morning. They would stop at Starbucks, then spend all day playing ball in the sticky Florida air.
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They lived together, along with catcher Jake Rogers, in spring training and now live in the same apartment complex. Greene still teases Torkelson about the infamous moment where he sliced his finger open while trying to open a can — sans can opener — this spring. Now Kreidler, roommates with Greene in Erie, teases Greene about his loud voice.
“Cleanliness is probably a 50 out of 80,” Kreidler jokes. “Other than that, he’s pretty good. Noise level could be improved. He doesn’t know how to not yell. He’s got a projectable voice.”
Torkelson, on the other hand, gives strong reviews about Greene as a roommate.
“Good guy to live with, takes care of his space,” Torkelson said. “He’s funny. He laughs at my jokes.”
They have become friends and also rivals in the same way any pairing of competitive athletes do.
Greene, who owns a boat, still considers himself the better fisherman.
“Yeah,” Greene said with a shrug.
Torkelson is better at Call of Duty. Greene has the edge in Rocket League.
Torkelson is the better golfer.
“He picked it up less than a year ago,” Torkelson said of Greene. “He swings right-handed. So I don’t think it’s that big of an accomplishment to be a better golfer than him.”
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When you talk to Torkelson and Greene, you are quickly reminded that they’re still young guys having fun. For all the hype, all the attention, all the innate gifts, both come off as normal 20-somethings still figuring out life and the game. This year, they have each experienced the grind of a full professional season. Torkelson always talks about how he’s glad he no longer has to do homework. He’s learning how to take care of his body, trying to eat healthy, he says, because it’s part of his job.
Greene carries himself with an even-keel demeanor. But he was also a touted high-schooler who earned multiple promotions the summer after he was drafted. Hitting .296 in Erie is the closest thing he’s ever experienced to failure.
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“I give him a hard time. He thinks he’s terrible after one tough night,” Kreidler said. “I’m just like, ‘Dude, this is a tough game.’ I went through that all the time in college.’”
Torkelson, too, had to overcome the rigors of his first professional slump. He now says he is glad he went through it.
“I’m really glad it happened,” Torkelson said. “Honestly, if I go hitless in a week, I’m like, ‘I don’t care. Try being hitless for three weeks.’ There’s always a light at the end of the tunnel.”
In Erie, Torkelson and Greene got to spend the summer reveling in baseball’s last bastion of purity. There is a ton of talent in Double A, but it tends to be a younger crowd. The SeaWolves clubhouse had the feel of a college locker room, a band of brothers all in it together.
Now in Triple A, Torkelson and Greene will face more refined pitchers and also encounter a much different culture. Triple-A clubhouses tend to be a tricky blend of older prospects just grinding for a chance and burned-out former big leaguers trying to stay in the game. The collegiate feel of Double A gives way to a more edgy, professional vibe.
Torkelson and Greene, though, seem to carry a certain magnetism. Not only with their talents, but also with their personalities.
“With all the attention that they’ve garnered — and rightfully so — they haven’t let it get to them,” Kreidler said. “And I appreciate how they go out there and play every day. They’re not flaunting who they are. And everyone knows who they are. I know who they are.”
They are both young and not yet jaded. But they have handled all the attention well. They seem to be enjoying the ride. And sometimes you wonder if their charisma and their abilities will soon make them beloved athletes in Detroit.
“These guys pick up water bottles in the dugout after the game, and I’ve never seen players do that, let alone first-round picks that are 1-1 in the country,” Erie manager Arnie Beyeler said. “All the guys you read about are the guys picking up water bottles in there after the game.”
Sunday morning, Tigers manager A.J. Hinch began his answer with an important reminder.
“They’re not coming to the big leagues,” Hinch said. “We can squash that dream this season. We want them to develop fully in the minors.”
Yes, the Tigers are resisting the temptation to call Greene and Torkelson up this fall. Fans may argue to see their talents tested in the majors. The Tigers could use help at first base (where Torkelson is most likely to play at the MLB level), and injuries have recently decimated the Tigers’ outfield depth.
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But the organization also wants to proceed with caution given the importance of these two budding stars. Hinch said the organization had considered keeping them both in Double A all year, letting them succeed and ride out the season together in a comfortable setting.
Instead, the Tigers decided Sunday evening to announce the promotions. It will give Greene, Torkelson and also Kreidler a small sample of a tougher level. The pure stuff of Triple-A pitchers will not necessarily be more advanced. But all the little things that often keep touted rookies from thriving right away in the big leagues — pitch sequencing, better offspeed, better lefties, more precise command — should be more palpable in Toledo.
No one in the Tigers organization would dare put a guaranteed date for when these players will make their MLB debuts. Promises only come with pressure and more expectations. But expect Torkelson and Greene to both play big roles in next year’s spring training.
If not right away, the Tigers have made no secret they would like Torkelson and Greene in the big leagues at some point next season.
“Nowadays the desire to push faster is always there,” Hinch said. “They’re exciting prospects who are gonna wear a big-league uniform, hopefully soon. But we have to keep in mind a true development track has them continuing with success and not just reacting too quickly and moving them.”
Some big bats are coming to town. 😤
Catch Spencer Torkelson, Riley Greene, and Ryan Kreidler in action for the Hens this week.
🎟️: https://t.co/RQN4ppCSU6 pic.twitter.com/Q8REusPV88
— Toledo Mud Hens (@MudHens) August 16, 2021
During one of those drives to the ballpark last fall, Torkelson and Greene allowed themselves to dream for a moment.
“Hopefully one day we’ll be up (in Detroit) together,” Greene said. “That’s just kind of a thing in the back of our heads that makes us want to work that much harder.”
This year, both players have heard how Hinch and his coaching staff have brought a winning culture to the clubhouse. They have texted with players such as Jake Rogers, who played a big part in the Tigers’ summer surge. They have watched as the Tigers close in on second place in the AL Central, as the team’s record inches closer to .500. They are not oblivious to their own importance to the organization.
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“We got a really good squad here (in Erie), and you’ll probably see a lot of them up next year,” Greene said. “Hopefully we can keep winning.”
Last Thursday in Erie, before Greene and Torkelson took turns bashing homers, they took turns complimenting and roasting each other, smiling and laughing in a dim hallway outside the clubhouse.
Torkelson started talking about the big-league club, about how he tries to keep a close watch on all that’s going on. Then he offered an easy handshake before heading back into the clubhouse. A swinging door opened and shut, and it turned out, only a few days later, another chapter of their youth would close, too.
(Top photo: Dustin Bradford / Getty Images)