I mean Gleyber David Torres Castro - aka "Gleyber Torres," or, for short, just "Gleyber" - who seemed the odd-man out in a jammed infield. This follows four seasons of faltering expectations, after he hit 38 HRs in 2019 (a year when, it must be noted, Brett Gardner hit 28.)
Gleyber suffers from the tragic and debilitating disease known as Advanced Prospect Senescence, in which young men seem to age visibly beyond their years.
In December, Gleyber turned 26. He is younger than Ron Marinaccio, Clarke Schmidt, Michael King and Albert Abreu. He is younger than the guy who plays 2B for Scranton, Wilmer Difo. He is younger than Florence Pugh, Miley Cyrus, Dua Lipa and Joe Jonas, who recently appeared with his brothers in a surreal Michael Kay YES interview during a Yankee game. He is younger than Nintendo 64 and Tickle Me Elmo. You know all those young YouTube superstar "influencers" that you've never heard of? Gleyber is younger than most of them.
Growing up in Venezuela during political unrest, Gleyber was spotted early and groomed to play ball. At 14, he moved to a baseball "academy" in the city of Maracay. At 16, he signed a $1.7 million dollar contract with the Cubs, did well in the dirt leagues and at 19 was dealt to Gotham for Aroldis Chapman, the human sweat bag who helped Chicago win its mythical world series.
The following spring, no doubt boosted by the Yankee hype machine, Gleyber was ranked by Baseball America as the 5th top prospect in baseball. When the Yanks brought him up - April 22, 2018 - John and Suzyn christened it "Gleyber Day." He was given number 25, last worn by Mark Teixeira, and instantly became a star.
He is what Anthony Volpe might look like, five years from now.
Which - well - is a double-edged sword, eh? After five seasons, Gleyber's statistical doppelganger is - drum roll, please - Jonathan Schoop, a rather middling player (who kills the Yankees, by the way.) This is Gleyber's final arbitration year - he'll be a free agent in 2025 - and he stands at a crossroads: Between now and August, he'll either be traded to fill a need, or he could be in line to become a lifelong Yankee. (We'll dismiss that early time with the Cubs.)
Monday, Gleyber hit his 100th career HR - the seventh youngest Yankee of all time to achieve this.
So, whaddaya think? I dunno. It's a long season, full of great brisket and bad sushi. In terms of job security, he'll have none. Gleyber's fast start means nothing. Arguably, it just drives up his trade value. He'll be on the market all season, and then he'll start pondering the most critical contract of his career. For the rest of his life, this season will probably define him.
Yesterday, Gleyber caught a break, of sorts. Josh "Jackie" Donaldson pulled a hammy. When a 36-year-old tweaks anything, that usually means six weeks in Calgon Bath Oil Beads. Bad news for Jackie, who hasn't played well enough to be guaranteed a starting slot when he returns. Good news for Gleyber, who now seems to have 2B to himself. (By the way, Donaldson, amazingly, is younger than Gordon Lightfoot and Marilu "Taxi" Henner.")
Yesterday, Gleyber got three hits, raising his average to .421 - among the league leaders. Can he beat Advanced Prospect Senescence? Guy's younger than Post Malone. Wait. Do you know Post Malone? Hmm. Stay tuned.
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17 comments:
Jackie O would hit better that Jackie Donaldson. I wish him well, after the season is over, and with another team.
Gleyber is playing for the money this year. His first year is a bizarre, juiced-ball oddity, but I think he'd be fine if he simply showed a consistent focus when on the field. Even if he doesn't hit 30 HRs.
Take the power hitter expectations away and he suddenly seems like a better player (with focus issues). Of course, a start like this does that, too.
It is not surprising that Torres is off to a good start. I wouldn't be shocked if he has a great year. It's his final year before free agency, and he smells the money. One great year, and he can garner a contract big enough to make his entire family rich for the next ten generations. Even if he does have a great year, and even if Dumbass Cashman does not trade him at the deadline, Yanks should NOT resign him. (Or if the do resign him, they need to trade him away pronto, before the bottom falls out. But this club doesn't do stuff like that, turn around and trade away a guy they just re-signed.)
I've been in the "trade Torres" camp for awhile. And I won't change colors just because he's having a good year so far. At any time, his production is capable of dropping off a cliff.
Torres is the winner of the Baseball Razzi Award for the Worst MLB Swing Ever Witnessed By The Hammer of God. He had his left foot still in the air, and he takes a pitifully weak swing on one foot. Needless to say, he didn't make contact. Needless to say, that shouldn't ever happen in Little League, let alone in the majors. They say that, sometimes, "his upper and lower body are not in sync".
It's because Torres has sort of a similar approach to Luke Voit. If you remember, Voit would hold his left foot just off the ground and hover it while the pitch was coming. And then he'd put the left foot and swing. Torres, unfortunately, has a large leg kick where his foot is high off the ground and then, as the pitch comes in, he's supposed to get his foot down and swing. A lot going on before the swing can happen. Whenever his timing is not perfect, that translates into periods of time when "the upper and lower body are not in sync". And you get swings with one foot in the air.
So far in the season, he has also been caught stealing at least once and he was doubled off the first base bag on a Donaldson liner in that lackluster loss to the Phillies.
Despite his rather chunky body type, he thinks he is Louie Lightfoot, that he can outrun the ball. When he's successful stealing, it's always nice. But I'd rather he stayed anchored on first base. This team pretty much is home run or nothing. Other than the few speedsters they have, they should not be attempting steals.
I met Louie's cousin a long time ago. All he would talk about was some shipwreck in Michigan. I think his name was Gordon.
Torres is under arbitration contract through 2024. He's not a free agent until the 2024-2025 offseason.
He's just had a hot six games. He did the same thing last September after an ice-cold August. This is who he is, an extremely streaky player. When he's hot, he's the guy we always dreamed he could be. When he's cold, he's DFA material.
As for the stolen bases, we can thank Manfred for that. Everyone is running like crazy. Hell, even LUKE VOIT stole a base yesterday. And perhaps the marginal runners like Torres are going to see the biggest benefit. Gleyber is actually sprinting *slower* than his last few seasons, according to Statcast. It's just the rule changes have helped him (and plenty of other guys) out.
Has anyone suggested that perhaps Gleyber could be the LF option?
I’d rather look at Torres’ production when the season is much further along. ( historical note: he is benched in my fantasy league, a sure fire way for a player to get hot. When I activate him next week, he’ll be colder than Ted William’s head) Recall last year, he hit .180 with a .464 OPS in August.
Regarding his contract he is a F/A after next season. Will the team really want to add another expensive long term contract at a position where we have other options? Don’t sleep on Trey Sweeney, a 22 y/o LH bat, currently at SS, but who will probably move to 3B. He is a few years away, however. Meanwhile, Torres remains the team’s most valuable trade chip, and a desirable salary dump, so this is a murky situation at best.
Gleyber looks good, Done aldson is done!
Baseball-reference.com claims Gleyber is "arb elible" in 2024, can be a F/A in '25.
I'm not gonna swear to that site's accuracy, but that's what it says
Hammer, Gleyber should work with Judge on his swing. The refinements that 99 has made over the past couple years are really smart and work for him. Would they work for Torres? I think so. I think they'd work for anybody who has the gumption and dedication to really put in the time.
I like Gleyber and want to see him do well. Whether or not he can is another story.
Also, and for different reasons, Judge came out of the gate gangbusters then spent a couple of years in the wilderness, that is, compared to that first year. Now he's 30 and king of the world.
Gleyber is 26. I'm not giving up on him yet. But he needs to put in the effort.
Hey, that "Unknown" is me! Damn Google accounts...
Torres defintley a F/A after 2024, it can be confirmed on multiple on multiple sites. Baseball Reference is a reliable site. Also use SPOTRAC. He will have one more year of arbitration next year, where he should make about 15m depending on his production this year.
Three words.
Maximum
Trade
Value
Unfortunately Scarecrow Cas$hole needs to get his brain from Oz for that to happen.
Sorry guys! Thought he was a free agent after this year. So he's not a free agent until after 2024. That means that he should bring even more in a trade. Let's hope he has a fabulous season. He can be moved at the trade deadline or over the winter.
@JM, No question about it, looks to me that he'd be fixable. Just get rid of or reduce that huge leg kick and he should be much more consistent. Judge hired an outside coach to work on his swing during the winter of 2021-22. Perhaps Torres should do the same. Maybe even the same coach.
I heard something funny during the Yankee radio broadcast the other day. I think they were talking about San Fran. Either San Fran or Philly, all of a sudden I'm not sure. But they said that club has got eighteen coaches. Enough coaches to fill a large room.
If Torres does not respond well to the Yankee team batting coach, you'd think that skinflint HAL would hire a personal hitting coach. I don't think they like to do that. I mean, we went through this kind of thing with Gary Sanchez too. So you have players (Judge) going outside the organization over the winter for personal coaching.
Gleyber's hiring his own coach, like Judge, would be a good idea.
And he had a good first TWO years, actually. He or AnDUjar should have been ROY in 2018 (Ohtani was NOT a rookie), and then he hit 38 homers in 2019. Juiced ball or no, that ain't bad.
The trouble is, he's hit only 38 homers SINCE then.
I don't know why. The usual, awful Yankee instruction? I often get the feeling that he's not really concentrating on his game.
Who knows? But if he CAN turn it around this year, I would take a gamble on him. Big if. More likely, he's back in a slough by June.
Off topic on an off night. RailRiders radio is several years incumbent Adam Marco and first year Emily Messina.
They began tonight at Lehigh Valley...
Messina: "Stepping up to the plate is Oswaldo Peraza and stepping up to the mic is the voice of the Scranton Wilkes Barre RailRiders, Adam Marco"
Marco: "Well Emily, I thank you"
When is Gleyber's contract up? Maybe he is staring into the abyss of mortality and it's magically focusing his mental energies.
It worked with ICS, right? Uh....oh well...
@13bit, They say his contract is up after 2024 when he becomes a free agent. So he has two years remaining. Perhaps he knows (rightfully) that he'd better get his ass moving if he wants that huge contract from Dumbass Cashman. He'll need two really good years, maybe two great years, and Dumbass will re-sign him to a mega-contract so that Torres will become another millstone here.
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