The Tigers have backed themselves into a first base mess, and the cleanest way out may be to make a trade.
For now, Detroit is trying to sort through Spencer Torkelson and Colt Keith at first base by platooning them to open September, a move that only underscores how unsettled the spot has become. Five months into the season, the Tigers are still searching for the right answer, and that search is only going to make the offseason conversation louder.
Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic recently pointed out the Torkelson-Keith dilemma, and he’s right: the Tigers are staring at a real decision here. The simplest solution is to move one of them. And if Detroit is going to pick one to keep building around, Keith is the one who makes the most sense to deal.
That’s not because Torkelson has been clean or easy to evaluate. Far from it.
He’s been one of the most heavily scrutinized players in the organization for years, and that criticism hasn’t come from nowhere. But the Tigers also have something with him they don’t quite have with Keith: a bigger ceiling, even if the ride has been rough.
Torkelson has shown both sides of the equation. He hit 31 home runs in 2023 and 2025, but he’s also been optioned twice. Detroit still can’t say with certainty exactly what kind of player he is, but the upside is obvious enough to make him harder to let go.
Keith, meanwhile, looks a lot more like a player who has settled into his lane. He’s only 24, and he did flash in the minors before reaching the majors as a .300 hitter with some pop.
But through three seasons at this level, that version hasn’t shown up consistently. He’s a career .258 hitter with 36 home runs, 141 RBI and a .717 OPS.
Torkelson’s numbers come with plenty of baggage, but the power is real. Across parts of five seasons, he has hit .225 with a .721 OPS, 102 home runs and 303 RBI.
He also strikes out more, carrying a 26.9% strikeout rate compared with Keith’s 20.5%. Still, Torkelson is viewed as the more natural first baseman defensively, and that matters in a spot where Detroit is trying to settle things down.
The money gap isn’t nothing, either. Torkelson is set to make a couple million more through arbitration than Keith, who is on a six-year, $28.64 million extension. But if the choice is between paying a bit more for the chance at 15-20 more home runs and 20-30 more RBI, that looks like the better bet.
Keith’s ability to move around the diamond could help him in another setting, but Detroit’s own system is adding infield depth with Max Anderson and Josue Briceño. That makes his versatility less of a trump card than it might seem.
There’s also a timing element here. The Tigers could use 2027 as a year to build up Torkelson’s value before deciding whether to move him later. If he has a disappointing 2026, the return wouldn’t be nearly as strong.
So the path forward is pretty straightforward: commit to Torkelson, trade Keith for a minor league arm or two, and clear some of the infield congestion. It would give Detroit a cleaner answer at first base and give Keith a better chance to find a place where he can actually settle in.
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