Torkelson attended Casa Grande High School in Petaluma, California, where he played baseball, football and basketball.

[8] As a sophomore, Torkelson joined Bob Horner as the only Arizona State players to hit 20 home runs for consecutive seasons.

[19] On August 15, he was promoted to the Toledo Mud Hens of Triple-A East, where finished the season and hit .238/.350/.481 with 11 home runs and 27 RBIs over 40 games.

[22] His first major league hit was a double off Boston Red Sox pitcher Rich Hill on April 12.

[25] Torkelson returned to the Tigers as a September call-up, and finished the 2022 season with a batting average of .203, with 8 home runs.

He became the seventh Tigers player to hit 20 or more home runs in his age-23 season, joining Travis Fryman, Hank Greenberg, Willie Horton, Matt Nokes, Jason Thompson and Rudy York.

Also, on July 18, 2023, at Kansas City he became the first Tigers player age 23-or-younger to have three or more extra-base hits and 10 or more total bases in a game since Nick Castellanos on August 19, 2015, at Chicago (NL).

On October 9, in Game 3 of the 2024 American League Division Series against the Cleveland Guardians, Torkelson recorded his first postseason hit — an RBI double in the sixth inning to put the Tigers up 3-0.