Getty Gleyber Torres
It’s no secret that Gleyber Torres has had a rough season for the New York Yankees in his contract year.
Between hitting slumps, fielding woes, and getting benched for a lack of hustle, the Yankees second baseman has almost certainly cost himself money in free agency. Torres is due $14.2 million this year, which helped earn him a spot on the 2024 MLB All-Overpaid Team, per Bleacher Report’s Kerry Miller.
At the plate, Torres has posted career-lows in batting average (.237), slugging percentage (.350), OPS+ (85), and BABIP (.283). In the field, he has committed 14 errors at second and Baseball Savant measures him at -5 outs above average and a -4 run value.
The Yankees are still a game up on the Orioles for first place in the American League East, but that’s mostly thanks to their two big outfield sluggers.
“[Torres] has become maybe the weakest link in a lineup that has a ton of weak links beyond Judge and Juan Soto,” Miller wrote.
His lack of power is less concerning this year considering Judge is on historic pace again and Soto is on a tear. But it will matter in free agency.
“After hitting at least 24 home runs in four of his first six seasons in the majors, Torres didn’t hit his first of this season until his 33rd game,” Miller continued. “And that was hardly a dam-breaker, as he is on pace to finish the season with around 14 and just recently snapped a streak of 15 consecutive games without an extra-base hit.”
The Gleyber Torres Free Agent Market
It’s tough to project what Torres could earn in free agency, be it from the Yankees or another team. One thing he has working in his favor: The free agent market for second basemen isn’t great. Brandon Lowe should command a hefty salary, but that’s only if the Rays don’t exercise his $10.5 million club option.
Even if Torres is the best second baseman available, however, he won’t get the type of mega-deal he probably envisioned early in his career. Though it’s far from scientific, Spotrac projects his market value to be around $7.1 million — almost exactly half what he is making now. It projects him to be worth a three-year contract in free agency, and at a $7.1 million AAV, that comes out to a little over $21 million total.
Compare that to April when Bleacher Report’s Joel Reuter called him “an attractive candidate for a long-term deal” and a “terrific all-around second baseman.” Or during Spring Training, when Spotrac set his value at $18.3 million per year with a seven-year, $128 million deal projection.
At that time, Tim Britton of The Athletic projected Torres to earn a four-year, $68 million deal in free agency — less than his valuation at the time, but significantly more than what it is now.
Gleyber Torres Is Showing Signs of Life at the Plate
Torres is a career .263 hitter who carries a 111 career OPS+. It’s been enough to give him two All-Star nods early in his career when he was still thought of as the hot-shot top prospect the Yankees acquired from the Cubs in the 2016 Aroldis Chapman trade.
Unless Torres goes nuclear in September, his stats at the end of the year will not befit a two-time All-Star. But he is showing improvement.
Torres is hitting .280 through 13 games in August with a .311 BABIP. He has only one extra-base hit in that time — a double — so his OPS is still low (.639 in August). Most importantly, perhaps, he’s showing consistency. Torres has at least one hit in 11 of his 13 games this month and reached base via a walk in the other two. As of the start of play on August 18, he has gone four straight games without striking out. He had not gone more than two in a row without a K at any other point this season.
With Judge and Soto providing the pop and Austin Wells on a tear, Torres doesn’t need to carry the team the rest of the way. He does, however, need to continue getting on base. Manager Aaron Boone seems to like batting Torres leadoff, putting him in front of the big hitters. That not only gives Torres a chance to score more runs, but forces teams to give Judge and Soto better pitches to hit.
Torres has been a weak link for the Yankees. It doesn’t mean he has to stay that way.
