Gleyber Torres — Yankee for life or most valuable trade bait?
Yankees second baseman Gleyber Torres reacts to the dugout as he rounds the bases on his solo home run against the Philadelphia Phillies during the third inning of an MLB baseball game at Yankee Stadium on Monday, April 3, 2023. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Gleyber Torres hit his 100th career home run on Monday night in the Yankees’ 8-1 victory over the Phillies at Yankee Stadium.
“It means a lot,” Torres told Newsday on Tuesday. “Special moment for myself, especially here with the Yankees, playing here at Yankee Stadium. I hope to get 200, 300 more homers and be a Yankee.”
Will Torres get 200 or 300 more homers? And if he does, will they come as a Yankee?
It’s no secret that Torres is at a bit of a crossroads in his Yankees career. A fast start – he went into Tuesday batting .333 with a 1.363 OPS and two home runs, both to the opposite field – could cement Torres’ spot as a core Bomber as the 26-year-old gets older and more expensive.
Or it could make him the Yankee most likely to be traded for something the team needs more, such as a starting pitcher or leftfielder.
The Yankees have an imbalanced roster, with so many infielders that they keep playing them in the outfield. With Harrison Bader on the injured list, last year’s shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa started his second career game in center on Tuesday.
Oswaldo Cabrera, a career infielder in the minors, got a crash course as an outfielder last season and started the first three games of this season in left.
During spring training, while Torres was away playing for the Venezuelan team in the World Baseball Classic, the Yankees tinkered with a middle-infield combo of Anthony Volpe and Oswald Peraza.
Volpe won the Opening Day shortstop job after dazzling everyone. Peraza went to Triple-A after batting .190. But it’s not inconceivable that the long-term answer in the Bronx could be Peraza at short and Volpe at second since Peraza is considered the better defender.
Two things would have to happen for that to become reality in 2023: Peraza would have to rebound from his poor spring, and the Yankees would have to feel comfortable dealing Torres for a piece that might be more necessary fit to their championship puzzle.
Torres is making $9.95 million. He’ll be a free agent after next season. So the Yankees – or another club – will eventually have to decide if Torres is a $15 million a year player because one truism about baseball salaries is, as with ticket prices, they always go up.
You know if you watch the games – Torres in recent seasons swings from the heels no matter the score, count or situation. That’s one reason his game has fallen off from the lofty standard he set as an All-Star as a rookie in 2018 and again the next season. But he has not made an All-Star roster since.
The Torres the Yankees saw in the first four games of 2023 is a $15 million-a-year player, the kind they expected when he was named the No. 2 prospect in baseball in 2018, behind only Shohei Ohtani.
On Monday, Torres went 2-for-2 with three walks, impressing his manager with a selectiveness Torres had not shown in recent years. Torres’ 39 walks and .310 on-base percentage in 2022 were career full-season lows.
“To throw a perfect night up there, with the homer the other way and three walks, another base hit, just really focused, quality at-bats by Gleyber,” Aaron Boone said. “[He’s] been right in the middle of a lot of things for us. It's exciting to see him playing the way he is."
Torres was in the middle of things on Tuesday as the No. 3 hitter with Anthony Rizzo getting a night off against Phillies lefthander Matt Strahm.
There’s a theory floating around the Yankees that Torres came back like a new man after his WBC stint. Spending time with perennial All-Star countrymen such as Yankees nemesis Jose Altuve seems to have put a charge into Torres.
Torres didn’t exactly buy that premise when it was suggested to him by Newsday. But he didn’t shoot it down, either, saying the biggest benefit he got from being around Altuve was “mental.”
“We had many really good conversations about preparation, situations within the game and things like that,” Torres said. “We talked about many things, man.”
How’s that for a storyline? Help from Altuve helps Torres reach his full potential. Hey, the Yankees will take it if that’s how it happens.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
