Should Yankees drop $18 million per season on free-agent infielder?

Free agency has officially started, and that’s always relevant if you are the New York Yankees. They have several players hitting the market, most notably Juan Soto but also other potentially expensive stars like Clay Holmes and Gleyber Torres.

The Yankees didn’t extend a qualifying offer to Gleyber Torres

Speaking of Torres, he didn’t receive a qualifying offer from the Yankees, probably because the team felt he could have taken it (it’s a one-year, $21.05 million proposal for 2025) and they don’t want to go over $20 million for him.

The Yankees and Torres have been together since 2016, or 2018 if you consider his rise to stardom the starting point. They know each other very well. The team is particularly familiar with Torres’ skill set and limitations. That’s why they probably didn’t offer him the QO.

Where do the Yankees draw the line, though? Would they consider signing the player at a $18 million average annual value (AAV) like the folks at FanGraphs are projecting? It’s possible, but unlikely.

The Yankees will probably move on without Torres

Yes, losing the leadoff hitter would hurt especially when it took the team months to get some production there, but the Yankees probably don’t want to spend $18 million per year on an infielder prone to mental, defensive, and baserunning lapses that posted a .708 OPS.

Maybe if the Yankees didn’t have potentially viable solutions to replace Torres internally they would entertain the possibility of paying top dollar for Torres, but they do have Oswaldo Cabrera, Jon Berti, Oswald Peraza, and Caleb Durbin ready to battle it out in spring training to see who gets the first crack.

With Juan Soto ready to make close to $50 million per season and a huge hole at first base and the bullpen, spending nearly $20 million per season on a multi-year pact for Gleyber just doesn’t seem like a smart allocation of resources.