NEW YORK — Gleyber Torres flung his bat to the ground, then tossed his helmet and his elbow guard. The New York Yankees second baseman had just struck out on an 85 mph cutter from Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Tyler Alexander that leaked into the heart of the zone. Sensing Torres’ frustration, struggling Yankees captain Aaron Judge brought Torres’ glove out to the field in between innings and walked with him toward shallow center field to reassure him.
Since the start of spring training, Yankees manager Aaron Boone and Torres’ teammates have said on numerous occasions they expected Torres to build off his 2023 season, when he was one of the team’s best hitters alongside Judge. That hasn’t happened yet. Out of 21 second basemen with at least 70 plate appearances this season, Torres entered Tuesday’s game with the sixth-worst wRC+. Dating to last season, he has now gone 45 games and 165 at-bats without a home run.
This happens to be the most important year for Torres, who will become a free agent at the end of the season. Torres told The Athletic that a potentially lucrative free agency isn’t impacting his focus daily.
“Every year you have to do better and better,” Torres said. “My free agent year is the same way. I can just control what I can control right now. I can just play well. At the end of the season, let’s see what happens. For now, I’m just really focusing on doing the right things for myself and also the team.”
Torres has made it clear he prefers to spend the rest of his career in pinstripes, but he said the team never had a conversation with him this offseason about a contract extension. Yankees general manager Brian Cashman was non-committal in March when asked about Torres’ future with the club. Torres said he wouldn’t entertain an extension conversation if one were initiated now, which is what Judge did in 2022 when he didn’t agree to an extension by Opening Day.
“Basically, now I’m just focusing on the season,” Torres said. “I’m just trying to get a great season with good numbers, stay healthy all season long, and let’s see what happens at the end of the year.”
Torres started the season as New York’s leadoff hitter but posted a .521 OPS before Boone moved him to the middle of the order in place of Anthony Volpe. Torres said he told Boone to take him out of the leadoff spot because he was getting frustrated that he wasn’t getting on base enough for Judge, Juan Soto and Giancarlo Stanton to drive him in. In 55 career games as the Yankees’ leadoff hitter, Torres has a .631 OPS, the worst for the second baseman in any spot in the order. Torres said he’s comfortable hitting first and would like an opportunity to do so again in the future.
“I feel good,” Torres said. “I think sometimes it’s not going the right way. I feel like I have hit a couple of really good balls and, unfortunately, everything is out. I’ve taken a couple of walks already. Some at-bats, I’m seeing six or seven pitches. Maybe I don’t get the right results, but I’m feeling good. I’m seeing the ball a bit better. I hope I’ll get more consistency soon.”
But before that happens, he has to show he can just simply hit. He’s running career lows in wOBA, xwOBA, barrel percentage and sweet spot percentage. He’s yet to get a hit against any off-speed pitch this season and was hitting just .136 against four-seam fastballs entering Tuesday. Of all the publicly available batted ball metrics, none of them are encouraging about Torres’ start at the plate.
“Honestly, I don’t feel like he’s in a bad place,” Yankees hitting coach James Rowson said. “He’s close to getting where he needs to be. It’s just a matter of getting a few more opportunities to get that one to fall and that one to land for you with a good swing. I think the knock he had in Toronto was a really good swing. He made some adjustments, stayed with it and it ends up being a big hit that helped us win a game. I don’t think he’s far off. I think he’s pretty close.”
Boone said Torres’ swing decisions “have been excellent.” Torres ranked in the 92nd percentile in chase percentage and above average in in-zone swing percentage entering Tuesday. He’s also swinging less often than the average MLB player, which has led to him seeing the 11th-most pitches per plate appearance in MLB. Being too passive at the plate could sometimes lead to negative results, but the Yankees don’t want Torres to change his approach yet.
“I wouldn’t say I want him to be more aggressive,” Rowson said. “I want him to be ready to attack a pitch that he can drive. That’s my mindset. If that pitch comes early in the count, that’s great. If it doesn’t come until later in the count, then I want him to lay off until he can get to that point. I want him to follow his game plan. I think he’s been pretty good at that. You can get a little anxious at times. You want to get hits. It’s a matter of being process-oriented and sticking to that. If the process is good, you will come out of this.”
After an 0-for-3 outing in Tuesday’s game, Torres was spotted leaving the batting cage after getting extra work in to try to get out of a funk that doesn’t look like it’s ending soon.
“It always surprises me when Gleyber does go through struggles, even though that’s inevitable with hitting, because he’s such a good hitter,” Boone said. “I feel like it’s a matter of time.”
(Photo of Torres: Wendell Cruz / USA Today)
