The 2024 season is a pivotal one for Gleyber Torres. The longtime Yankee second baseman will almost certainly head to free agency in November. Torres has publicly angled for an extension on multiple occasions in recent years, but there hasn’t been any indication the team wanted to strike early to keep him beyond this season.
Torres projects as one of the more interesting mid-level hitters in next winter’s class. He isn’t doing himself any favors with his early-season performance, though. Torres is out to a .208/.289/.273 start through 174 plate appearances. He didn’t hit his first home run of the season until May 2 and hasn’t collected multiple hits in a game since April 29. His overall production has hovered around replacement level.
It’s a surprisingly poor start for a player who has emerged as one of New York’s more consistent offensive contributors. Torres was a decidedly above-average hitter, by measure of wRC+, in four of his first six MLB seasons. Last year was among the best of his career. He connected on 25 homers with a .273/.347/.453 slash over a personal-high 672 trips to the plate.
Torres didn’t have the gaudy slugging numbers he posted back in 2019, when he popped a career-best 38 longballs in the so-called “juiced ball” season. Yet he cut his strikeout rate to a personal-low 14.6% mark and posted the highest on-base percentage in any full season of his career. There’s an argument the 2023 season was Torres’ best after accounting for the significantly depressed offensive environment compared to ’19.
While there are a few months to turn things around, he’s amidst a rough opening to his walk year. Torres’ triple slash stats are all easily at personal lows. His rate of hard contact (a batted ball with an exit velocity of 95 MPH or greater) has dropped 10 percentage points relative to last season. After squaring up a solid 40.3% of batted balls a year ago, he’s down to 30.4% thus far. That ranks 228th among 264 qualified hitters, per Statcast.
Torres is not only making decidedly less impactful contact, he’s making less contact of any kind. His strikeout rate has jumped to 23.6%, which would be the highest since his rookie season. He’s swinging through more pitches both within and outside the strike zone. It’s not disastrous — Torres’ strikeout and walk marks are right around league average — but it’s a major step back from where he was last season.
This isn’t quite the worst stretch of Torres’ career. He had a slightly worse month and a half coming out of the All-Star Break back in 2022. Torres rebounded with a power explosion that September that presaged his strong ’23 campaign. It’s certainly not out of the question that he puts this recent slump behind him.
League-wide power numbers tend to improve in the summer as the weather warms. That has typically been the case for Torres, who has a career .369 slugging percentage in March and April and has been north of .400 in every other month. It’s not uncommon for him to take some time to find his power, although that doesn’t typically come with the kind of swing-and-miss he has shown this year.
It’s imperative he put things together fairly quickly if he’s going to land the kind of contract his camp presumably envisioned coming into the season. Torres’ profile is driven by his offensive ability. While there’s value in being able to play up the middle, he’s a fringy defender at second base. It’s not likely that teams would consider moving him back to shortstop, where he had well below-average grades and hasn’t played regularly since 2021.
Torres was already looking to buck an unfavorable market trend towards second basemen. As shown on the MLBTR Contract Tracker, there are only a handful of recent free agent deals for second basemen that exceeded $50MM. Marcus Semien’s seven-year, $175MM pact stands as an anomaly that Torres was never going to match — and Semien had a plausible argument as a potential shortstop before the Rangers signed Corey Seager a few days later. Mike Moustakas (four years, $64MM) and DJ LeMahieu (six years, $90MM) are more realistic comparison points, though those players could also play third base.
Teams have generally been more willing to invest in second basemen via extensions (e.g. Jose Altuve, Andrés Giménez, Ketel Marte, Jake Cronenworth, Jeff McNeil) than on the open market. That doesn’t seem likely to happen with the Yankees, who could be content to turn the position to Oswald Peraza after this season.
Torres’ biggest selling point once he gets to the open market is his youth. He’ll play all of next season at 28. It’s likely his camp would try to push for a deal in the range Andrew Benintendi received at the same age (five years, $75MM). That contract has aged very poorly for the White Sox, but he’d been a similar caliber of hitter as Torres leading up to his signing. Benintendi was a Gold Glove winner who plays a less important position.
However, the market for mid-tier hitters last offseason wasn’t as robust as it had been in the previous winter (when Benintendi signed). Jeimer Candelario and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. each landed three-year guarantees in the $14-15MM annual range. As with Torres, they’d generally been good but not elite hitters who weren’t offering immense defensive value. Neither Candelario nor Gurriel was eligible for a qualifying offer. If Torres turns things around, he could receive one from the Yankees.
Torres will need to start hitting soon for that to be a factor. He has already played his way out of the leadoff spot to the bottom half of the order. It’s too early for Aaron Boone to consider pulling him from the lineup entirely, but the Yankees should be locked in a tight race with the Orioles throughout the summer. They can’t afford to live with no production from second base all season, and Peraza is on a rehab stint from a Spring Training shoulder strain. How Torres performs over the next two months will be a key factor in both New York’s chance of winning a tough division and his appeal to teams when he hits the market.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Even if Torres was having a big year he wouldn’t get the type of deal like Semien did because Semien is a better all around player.
Well, he is younger than semien. He also has done it for the greatest franchise and the best fans
Lmao so stupid the last part
Hot Dog – You’re right, this is an inappropriate headline. His BA is only .208 therefore he’s not hitting PERIOD.
I’m not going to dispute your calling the Yankees the best franchise history has shown that clearly but what’s that got to do with Torres’ performance whatsoever? If he played for another team would that make his value less. I’m not bashing Torres either this could be just a bad streak he’s started on and those are tough I just don’t get your point tying his accomplishments to the Yankees organization or fans
This looks like one of the dumb a$$ moves the Mets would make, 10 years/ $300 million.
Stern’s ain’t dumb
2 years 28 million, blue jays.
Blue Jays already have a 2B who is 1) making the minimum and 2) also plays a decent LF and 3) has a 161 OPS+ since his August 4 debut (69 games).
Since August 4, 2023
Gleyber Torres: 392 PA, 11 HR, 114 wRC+
D. Schneider: 253 PA, 12 HR, 161 wRC+
He needs to “juice up” like judge does. Obvious
Lol what?
There are a lot of rumors
No way Hotdog. He’s the same size as he was when he came up. That’s the year he hit 52 homers and was ROY.
No he isn’t. That wouldn’t matter anyway. See bartolo colon busted
No there aren’t.
Yeah you’re right. He was only 275 pounds when he played in Scranton 2015. Now he’s listed at 282. busted
It’s a shame guys that juiced have to taint anyone that’s a beast. Judge has gotten paid big money what’s his incentive to risk tainting his career going forward? MLB has a solid testing program I’m just going to assume everyone is clean until proven otherwise. Even if there was a drug that couldn’t be detected there’s always a Balco scenario where there’s a paper trail or ways of getting exposed
Torres’ biggest problem tends to be between his ears, imho. When he’s right, he’s good both offensively and defensively. But, when he’s not, he’s very frustrating to watch. I hope the Yankees do not sign him to a long-term deal (nor do I think they will). I could see that going very poorly.
He has a tendency to “take plays off” like his buddy Gary Sanchez in the day.
Nonsense. No one takes MLB plays off. Impossible to do
Yes. He’s not good defensively actually. He has the ability to make nice plays but way too many mistakes to be a plus defender. Good bat for the middle infield though. A guy who struggles with some of the mental aspects of the game having a bad walk year isn’t a surprise. He’s gonna frustrate some other fan base next year while putting up 3+ WAR.
It’s time to trade Gleyber before Gleyber Day!!!!
“Torres’ biggest problem tends to
be”…Not that I disagree with your point, but Torres needs to get out of New York asap. He’s always going to be a media lightning rod and whipping boy there. Whenever it’s a slow news day they’ll talk about whatever is recently ailing Torres or things he doesn’t do. When he plays well, they’ll talk about how well Judge, Rizzo or Volpe is playing. He’ll never be appreciated. If I’m him I’d be sick of it, because compared to most other second baseman he’s above average. Plus, I think he’d play better(more relaxed)in a less TOXIC environment than New York.
It’s a mechanical issue, Clip. His infield flyball % is 23.4% where his career average is 9.1%. Volpe is at 8.1% and Judge at 10% this season. These are guys who have slumped. I love Gleyber but he’s not an instinctual defender either and it is what it is.
Those are great stats, YBC, I hadn’t looked at those. It makes a lot of sense in the context of his season thus far. Seems like he gets to pull happy as well, and that really hurts his offensive production when it’s not a HR.
Dunno if using any Padres LT signs is a good idea. So many of Prellers choices have been huge overpays.. Bogaerts, Cro, 2nd Machada. Poor SD, not saying a bankruptcy would happen in a major sport, but MLB franchise? This team has no broadcast rights (ex mlb fed), no huge fan base. Lokk up how much this team is on the hook for with LT deals. It’s mind boggling and they let 1 of the best players in the game go in Soto, which could have been avoided with any foresight.
100%. They were run like drunken sailors were in charge. In a few years they will have a terrible expensive roster.
No huge fan base? San Diego sells out virtually every home game. The place was going bonkers this past weekend when they took 2 out of 3 against LA. Manager Mike Shildt says San Diego is very much a baseball town. Their trade for Arraez was very smart, this team will be contending all summer. Not sure what you’re on about man.
The Arraez trade was a good move, and they have a nice team this year. The future is horrible with all those long-term deals (some to non-elite players).
“No huge fan base”…He’s wrong about the fan base thing, because S.D already has 12 SELLOUTS and the only one packing more people into a stadium nightly are the L.A Dodgers. Some of the other things he said were accurate though. When the bill comes due on San Diego’s long term deals, they’ll be sunk. Already uber expensive players like Bogarts(-W.A.R value), Darvish, Musgrove and Machado look to be in decline. In 2-4 years, they’ll be old, slow(maybe even injury-prone)and extremely expensive, a very bad combination.
Mostly remember SD from time was stationed there decades ago and granted.. Only stadium went to went on to be renamed jack murphy, forget what it was called at the time tho. I remember it was mostly a USN town at the time, but family was there again.. like in ’07. Was of course much bigger. Bug fan base to compete with LA/SF? i don’t see it is my 2c and now had 150m+ payrolls for how many years?
We must also remember Oakland, the city now drawing 5-10k per game was once selling out at the colosseum when they had canseco, Eck etc. Winning draws (usually). What will happen when those previously mentioned contracts turn sour and more fresh blood cannot be found?
His bat is showing some life of late, but 1.5 month of sub-Mendoza is not helping his agent any. My roto team isn’t what it should be thanks to the struggles of Gleybor, JRod & Seager…
JRod is just about to take fire. Would not surprise me if he hits three homeruns in a game very soon, and may do it twice in one week. He definitely has it in him. Hang on to him, he will be just fine.
New York should move him for a high prospect and to sweeten the deal by picking up his salary. Then maybe KC or Tampa a smaller market team would give a better caliber player. Torres might benefit from playing in a smaller market as well.
They won’t get a top prospect for him even if eat the remaining of his $14.2MM salary. Besides his replacements, DJL and Peraza are both on rehab assignments with no set dates.
Torres was hit by a pitch in the right hand about a month ago and it certainly looked scary live. He remained in the game and left mid inning shortly there after. You have to wonder if there are some lingering effects from that. This is certainly non typical of his hitting prowess up to this point and likely costing him millions.
Seems like the kind of guy that gets a qualifying offer and accepts it. If he finishes the season with a 700 OPS then I think that’s exactly what will happen.
Strongly disagree. Right or wrong the team has soured on Gleyber. No way they’re paying him 22 mil or whatever the QA is. There are about 5 candidates for his job in the org: Peraza, Cabrera, Vivas, Durban, and Berti.
He will only get a QO if the Yankees are sure he’ll turn it down, and he’d have to rebound in a big way for that to happen.
As things stand, he’s more likely to get Gallo’ed and shipped out of town.
Yankees wont risk offering the qualifying offer set at $21 million cause he will accept it and that would kill any chance they resign Soto. They need every one of their free agents to leave with the exception of Holmes to resign Soto and stay below the Cohen tax threshold
Not quite that dire but agreed with the principal. Soto is on the books already his raise is covered by Torres leaving and not paying Donaldsons buyout again. Hicks off the books in 2026 and Stanton subsidy from the Marlins kicks in.
The Yankees have signaled they’re happy to have Gleyber now, but GleyberDays are numbered. They’re going to let him walk
after this season.
Unless his market totally drops out, and he is back on a one-year deal or something, you are right. The Yankees have tons of middle infielders on the way, and no need to pay FA dollars when cheaper options that are comparable are on the way. He could have made this decision hard for the Yankees by playing well, but that isn’t happening.
Yanks don’t have the budget to sign him or the need
They have several great young players and have a sky high payroll already
Gleyber value is shrinking rapidly, ceiling is probably 6 years 90 million
His agent wishes! Barring a massive turnaround I’m feeling 4 years 60-65 million.
I would be surprised if he gets a multi-year offer that is more than two years. Best case for Torres is that he gets a short deal and is able to become a FA again sooner rather than later with a good year or two under his belt.
Will be interesting to see. The market certainly spit on corner outfielders and 1st/Dh types. Guys got some peak left and he can play 2nd even if he drives you mad with careless errors.
Buh bye!
Maybe boarass can get him a one year contract and a option for a second if he is willing to hold out into spring training
He forgot to pay me – so I drafted him on my fantasy team – instant stat death to MLB players when that happens! I had him also in 2021.
Trust me – the jinx is true! I have to keep him until the July 1 redraft – he should do much better after I drop him.
Ok, so if he’s in a walk year and you’re doing a profile of a soon-to-be free agent, why is this article on a transactional analysis site not talking more about what his market will be like instead of just quoting stats they found on Fangraphs or Statcast? Don’t try to be Fangraphs, MLBTR. Talk about what teams need a second baseman next year. Teams who are good at changing hitters approaches. Not just point out numbers.