This story was excerpted from Jason Beck¡¯s Tigers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

DALLAS ¨C The Tigers remain committed to giving former top prospect Spencer Torkelson every opportunity to flash the talent he showed in his 31-homer season of 2023. But they want him to earn it, and they want to win.

It¡¯s why the Tigers have been linked to interest in veteran first basemen at this week¡¯s Winter Meetings, including Christian Walker and Paul Goldschmidt. To a lesser degree, it¡¯s why Detroit is looking to maintain versatility in its current roster, including asking 23-year-old second baseman Colt Keith and 24-year-old outfielder Justyn-Henry Malloy to take ground balls at first base this offseason.

It¡¯s why the Tigers, while still showing faith that Torkelson can improve, are emphasizing the need for him to do so.

¡°The point still stands that the performance has to get better,¡± president of baseball operations Scott Harris said Monday in his opening Winter Meetings media session at the Hilton Anatole. ¡°It¡¯s not just offensive performance, it¡¯s defensive performance too.

¡°We¡¯re exploring ways to get better in all aspects of our team. Some are really clearer fits than others. As I said at the beginning of the offseason, we have to focus on both paths here. The first path is [to] get the absolute most out of the players we have. [Manager A.J. Hinch] has done a really good job with his coaching staff of building an offseason that is going to lead to players coming back better than they left Detroit. We have to be full steam ahead on that path.

¡°Similarly, our job is to find ways to add to this organization externally, add players that can help us build upon the talent base that we have already have. We¡¯ll see how it goes the rest of the offseason.¡±

The Tigers could conceivably have two options at first base and play one at designated hitter, but it gets tricky. Last season, Detroit used the DH slot not only to get Kerry Carpenter more at-bats while picking and choosing his spots defensively, but also to monitor Riley Greene¡¯s workload before and after his midseason stint on the injured list with a right hamstring strain. The team would rather mix and match at DH and take advantage of it than commit to one or two players, so the potential fit is limited.

On Malloy and Keith potentially adding first base to their skill sets, Harris said: ¡°We are not giving up on corner outfield and second base, respectively, for those two players, and we¡¯re also not giving up on Spencer Torkelson. It¡¯s more of when we stepped back and looked at our team in the second half last year, we don¡¯t feel like we gave [Hinch] enough versatility, especially at first base. We felt like our limited options at first base prevented him from seeking in-game matchups that helped us get an advantage and ultimately win the game.¡±

The Tigers optioned Torkelson to Triple-A Toledo on June 3 with a slash line of .201/.266/.330. Mark Canha became Detroit¡¯s primary first baseman in Torkelson¡¯s absence for the next month, but after Canha hit .186 for June, the Tigers pivoted to Bligh Madris and Gio Urshela. Torkelson returned in mid-August and started at first base for 38 of Detroit¡¯s final 39 regular-season games, plus all seven postseason contests.