DataBaseball
2026
Spencer Torkelson headshot

1B · 2026

Spencer Torkelson

Age
27
B/T
R/R
Height
6' 1"
Weight
220 lb
Number
#20
Born
August 26, 1999 in Petaluma, CA, USA
MLB debut
April 8, 2022
Drafted
2020, round 1
College
Arizona State
Salary, 2026
$4.08M
dbWAR
2.7
3 season(s)
PA
464
AVG
.227
OBP
.315
SLG
.422
wRC+
106
100 = avg

Spencer Torkelson is a first baseman for the Detroit Tigers. In 2026 he hit 20 home runs and knocked in 59 RBIs, notching 92 hits across 464 plate appearances in 117 games. His batting average was .227, 6.8% lower than the league average of .244. He reached base at a .315 clip and slugged .422, for an OPS of .738, 2.5% higher than the league mark of .719 — 6th of 15 on his team, and 152nd of 417 among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 89.5 mph off the bat, hit 42.1% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 12.0% of them and made contact on 68.9% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 106 wRC+ puts his offence 6% above average. That comes to 0.8 dbWAR — +2.7 runs with the bat, -1.0 on the bases, -9.7 for the position he plays, against replacement level. It includes no fielding: defensive runs are proprietary and are not estimated here, so the figure credits playing a demanding position but not playing it well.

League context

Percentile among qualified batters, 2026.

wRC+106
wOBA.325
ISO.195
BB%10.6%
WAR.8

How the WAR is built

Runs above replacement, 2026. These four terms sum to +7.5 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR.

Batting+2.7Baserunning-1.0Position-9.7Replacement+15.5
BattingBaserunningPositionReplacement

WAR by season

2.11.0-0.1242526

Platoon splits

How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.

Batting by the hand the pitcher throws with, 2026. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
SplitPAABHHRBBSOAVGOBPSLGwOBAK%
vs LHP1261083031734.278.373.435.36027.0%
vs RHP338297621732108.209.294.418.31232.0%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2026.

Loading 266 batted balls…

Contact quality

How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 266 tracked batted balls in 2026. Percentiles are against qualified batters.

Barrel rate
12.0%
32 barrels
Exit velocity
89.5
mph average
Max exit velo
109.8
mph, hardest hit
Hard hit
42.1%
95 mph or better
Sweet spot
43.6%
8–32° launch
Launch angle
19.6°
average
Barrel rate12.0%
Exit velocity89.5 mph
Hard hit rate42.1%
Contact rate68.9%

A barrel is a batted ball whose exit velocity and launch angle have historically produced at least a .500 average and 1.500 slugging — 98 mph within 26–30°, widening to 8–50° by 116 mph. Reconstructed from Statcast's published anchor points, which reproduces them exactly; the interior is within a degree. Sweet spot (8–32°) is an exact definition.

Hot and cold zones

Batting average by pitch location, 2026.

.000.105.125.073.23517 AB.34529 AB.30020 AB.20634 AB.26856 AB.20045 AB.47823 AB.41931 AB.19541 AB
Below averageLeague averageAbove average
Batting average by location of the pitch that ended each plate appearance, catcher's view. The bordered square is the strike zone; the outer band is chase territory. Cells with fewer than 8 at-bats are left grey rather than shown as signal. League average on the same attribution is .243.

Situational hitting

How Spencer Torkelson hits by base state, outs, score and late-game pressure — each read against his own season line.

Split by
By who is on base when he comes up. The season line is repeated as the baseline.
SituationPAABHHRRBIBBSOAVGOBPSLGwOBA
All situations464.227.315.422.325
Bases empty2462254911131983.218.282.413.304
Runner on first11097226161130.227.318.454.339
Runners on218180439463059.239.353.433.349
RISP10883213301929.253.389.410.359

Runners on includes runners in scoring position, which is the convention every reference uses. Counted from play-by-play, 2026.

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.

Trend
2026117464922059049142.227.315.422.195.29110.6%30.6%.325+2.71060.8
20251556491353178272169.240.333.456.217.28311.1%26.0%.341+13.81152.1
202492381751037033105.219.295.374.155.2858.7%27.6%.296-4.989-0.1

Head to head

Put Spencer Torkelson beside up to three others.

Compare — add up to 3 more players
Spencer Torkelson

Similar players

Nearest 2026 seasons by discipline, contact, power and speed, on rate statistics rather than totals.

How these are computed

wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.