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Gleyber Torres has been a staple in the Yankees infield for seven years now, and he’s given the Bronx Bombers plenty of ups and downs in that time.
Since debuting in 2018 and breaking out in 2019 when he smashed 38 home runs and hit .278 — both career-highs — Torres has been a love-him or hate-him player amongst the fans. Is that fair, though?
In his career, Torres is slashing .265/.334/.441 and has played at least 120 games in every season — sans the shortened 2020 year.
After his rough 2021 and 2022 seasons, Torres bounced back to be one of the best offensive second basemen in baseball in 2023, and was the Yankees’ most consistent hitter when Aaron Judge was injured. And he was the Yankees’ solution as their leadoff hitter in 2024.
Now that Torres is a free agent for the first time, should the Yankees bring him back or move on?
Why it could make sense to let Torres go
At 28 years old and after seven seasons, we know who Torres is. He’s not that 2019 slugger, but he’s not the light-hitting second baseman we saw in 2021. He’s definitely someone in between who will give you 20-to-25 home runs and hit around .260.
But is that good enough to justify another contract? And at his age, he could be looking for a lengthy deal.
The Yankees have plenty of second base backup options if Torres leaves. They traded for Jazz Chisholm Jr., who became their everyday third baseman and did a great job considering he had never played at the hot corner in his professional career. However, Chisholm’s natural position is in the middle infield, where he started in his first two seasons in the majors before the Miami Marlins converted him to an outfielder.
The writing seems to be on the wall that he will move over to second, meaning New York will have to find another everyday third baseman. There are some third base options in free agency like Alex Bregman and lower-tier players like Paul DeJong, Brandon Drury or Amed Rosario, but you also have to consider what the Yanks have in their farm system.
The Yankees can keep Chisholm at third base and give defensive stalwarts Oswald Peraza or Jorbit Vivas a shot to win the second base job out of spring training and make the team more defensively sound.
Plugging the holes with players already under contract could be how the Yankees have to play their offseason if they re-sign Juan Soto.
Why it could make sense to bring Torres back
On that Soto note, if the Yankees aren’t able to bring back their star outfielder they’ll have plenty of cash to fill other some holes.
Without the production of Soto, the Yankees could want to have some continuity and get some much-needed production out of Torres at second base. Torres was also a catalyst when he returned to the leadoff spot after Anthony Volpe faltered there. After moving back to the leadoff position on Aug. 16, Torres hit .319 with a .393 on-base percentage and scored 38 runs.
He was also solid in the postseason, slashing .241/.348/.397.
During the 2024 regular season, Torres was seventh among second basemen in batting average (.254), fourth in hits (151), 10th in home runs (15), fifth in RBI (63), fifth in OBP (.330) and sixth in OPS (.708).
All of that is to say that despite his shortcomings, Torres is a top 10 second baseman in the league and the Yankees could do worse than bring him back — for the right price.
Verdict
Despite how Yankees fans feel about him, Torres is loved and respected in the clubhouse. But this is a tough one.
A lot of the Yankees’ offseason is predicated on Soto coming back. If Soto returns to the Bronx, Torres is likely gone if for no other reason than to save money, and the Yankees have internal options they can choose from.
But if Soto doesn’t re-sign, I still believe the Yanks and Torres would benefit from a split in the same way Luis Severino did a year prior. The Yankees have Chisholm to play second and can find a third baseman over the offseason that would likely cost less.