Casa Grande’s Spencer Torkelson makes history as MLB’s No. 1 draft pick

In the midst of a bizarre Major League Baseball nonseason, Redwood Empire sports fans were able to pause for a moment of glory. Spencer Torkelson, who graduated from Casa Grande High School in Petaluma before playing at Arizona State University, made history Wednesday when the Detroit Tigers made him the first overall pick in MLB’s annual amateur draft.

“Spencer Torkelson has put Sonoma County on a world map,” said Joey Gomes, another Petaluma product who now runs the Healdsburg Prune Packers minor-league team and has been working with Torkelson in the batting cage since the coronavirus pandemic ended ASU’s season. “Baseball is real in Sonoma County. We all know it here. California knows it. The West Coast knows it. But the world will know it now.”

Gomes’ point takes on added validity when you consider that Cal’s Andrew Vaughn, who played at Maria Carrillo High School in Santa Rosa, was the No. 3 overall pick (by the Chicago White Sox) just a year earlier.

Torkelson had been the consensus pick for the top spot for weeks, perhaps months. The Tigers made it official just after 4 p.m. Wednesday. Until MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred announced the pick, though, Torkelson was in the dark.

“His adviser had not heard anything from the Tigers all day,” said the player’s uncle and longtime youth coach, Mike Enochs, who was with Torkelson and his family in Petaluma on draft day. “Right up until when the pick was called, we were saying, ‘I don’t think it’ll be Spencer.’ That was a minute before it was called. Tears were shed, let me tell you.”

Another surprise: Detroit is calling Torkelson a third baseman, though he played mostly first base in college.

MLB draft choices are slotted for signing bonuses. As the first pick, Torkelson will earn an ?$8.4 million bonus. He is represented by super-agent Scott Boras.

Torkelson was a very good high school player who became a great one with the Sun Devils. A solid infielder and runner, he made his reputation on power, clubbing 54 ?home runs in 129 collegiate games. He was just two homers shy of the school record, set by Bob Horner, when the Pac-12 Conference shut down all spring sports.

This is how MLB Pipeline, a scouting site affiliated with the league, described Torkelson prior to the draft: “He controls at-bats extremely well and draws a ton of walks. He’s able to drive the ball from foul pole to foul pole and he uses the middle of the field when he’s at his best. He’s able to hit the ball out to all fields, with tremendous loft power to his pull side. He doesn’t sell out for that power, but gets to it with ease.”

In other words, this kid can rake the ball.

He always has. But not every talented ballplayer winds up as the year’s most elite prospect. What has set Torkelson apart is a relentless devotion to the sport.

“At a young age, he’d have a bat in his hands, and he’d just be begging people to throw balls at him,” said Enochs, who tossed him batting practice when the kid was 3 years old and coached him in organized leagues from T-ball through the age of 12. “I’ve coached baseball for 30-something years, and I’ve never seen a work ethic like it.”

Gomes has known and worked with Torkelson since the youngster was 12. Asked how long he has known Torkelson was bound for something great, Gomes said, “Spenny knew. It wasn’t that I needed to know. I think this guy knew the whole time.”

Torkelson becomes a Tigers employee at one of the strangest times in baseball history. Already reeling from a Houston Astros cheating scandal that undermined public faith in the game’s integrity, MLB has seen its 2020 regular season delayed by the nation’s various stay-at-home orders. And with team management and players already gearing up for a fight when the current collective bargaining agreement expires in December 2021, the two sides have been unable to agree on terms of a return to play this summer.

Wednesday, Manfred said, “We will have baseball in 2020.” But the league, hemorrhaging money while stadiums remain empty, has angered players by slashing the draft from 40 rounds to five in a cost-cutting move, and has announced a plan to eliminate 42 minor-league teams. Teams and union officials have largely agreed on safety parameters to mitigate the virus, but the sides remain split on compensation.

It is into this mess that Spencer Torkelson now arrives, to much fanfare. No one player will salvage baseball’s reputation. But the Tigers are hoping Torkelson will be part of a young wave that helps restore some normalcy. Gomes thinks he’s a perfect candidate.

“I think the Detroit Tigers are drafting the face of the Tigers,” he said. “This is their Stephen Curry.”

Enochs agrees, partial as he may be. He has seen the kindness and patience Torkelson showed to struggling teammates in high school, and to kids who followed him around at ASU and at Enochs’ Little League practices.

Ten minutes before the Press Democrat called Wednesday, the uncle said, a boy walked onto the Torkelsons’ court and asked the player to autograph a jersey. Torkelson obliged. Having joined the likes of Ken Griffey Jr., Alex Rodriguez and Chipper Jones as a No. 1 overall pick, it won’t be Torkelson’s last.

“He’s gonna get arthritis, I think,” Enochs said.

You can reach Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @Skinny_Post.