San Diego Padres 2020 MLB Draft scouting profile: Spencer Torkelson

Torkelson’s toolbox

The most obvious and best tool Torkelson possesses is his power, which I would grade as a 65 on the scouts 80 point grade scale.

I know that he plays in a hitter-friendly environment and league, but he’s proven it with a wood bat in the summer and against good competition.

Plus, when you look at this swing it’s very projectable as he doesn’t have any quirky motions or anything that would raise red flags.

For a power hitter, he actually has a really compact swing and is able to generate a lot of power from that swing.

He’s clearly part of the launch angle generation as the gets his bat flat as soon as possible and keeps it in the zone for a long time.

That’s why I’d grade his hit tool as 60 because I think the swing is good enough that his floor as a Major League hitter looks be a .280 hitter.

The biggest concern, and really only concern, with Torkelson is his defense.

He was primarily an outfielder in high school but switched primarily to first base and DH in his freshman season at Arizona State.

The switch to first base was troublesome as he made 8 errors as a freshman, but he cut that to just 4 errors in 2019.

Still, I’d grade his defense and arm as average at best. He probably best fits with an American League team where he can DH, but he’s not incapable of playing defense.

And finally, Torkelson is never really going to be a stolen base threat but has an athletic enough frame at 6-foot-1 and 220 pounds to be an above-average base runner.