Day 273

Fresh Start_273: Yankees call Torres up to Triple A

Can Gleyber Torres be this year’s Gary Sanchez? Not in the sense that Torres will come up in September and hit 20 bombs in 36 games, but that fact that he’ll come up and give the Yankees a needed boost at the end of the season. If Chase Headley continues to struggle (right now his numbers are .241/.317/.386 with 3 homers and 20 RBI’s). Torres in Double A batted .273 with a .367 OBP and a .496 slugging percentage with 5 homers and 18 RBI’s in 32 games. Now, Torres is playing Double A talent, which is nowhere near comparable to Major League talent that Headley is facing, but you never know what can happen.

If Torres can hit at Triple A; he’ll do what Greg Bird has done—which is hit at every level that he has played at. I don’t think Torres will keep up a .273 average throughout the remainder of the season in Triple A and potentially the Majors, but Gary Sanchez has broken that “he won’t continue to” barometer last year. Torres is an incredible talent that the Yankee organization loves and rightly so. “He checked every box necessary in that league” said Brian Cashman when he was asked today about moving Torres to Scranton. If you remember, Torres was one of the players that you’d stop doing what you were doing to watch him at the plate or rewind a play he made in the field.

When Cashman pulled the trigger on the Chapman trade last July and got Torres, I cheered because I assumed he was the potential replacement for Headley. Torres will reportedly continue to play short, second, and third in Scranton to prepare him for a whole that might need to be fixed at the Major League level. It makes sense, but the way Didi and Starlin have played last year and the beginning of this year, it would just make sense that Headley is the odd man out in the Bronx. Especially if Headley continues to have momentary lapses in the field with Torres ability to just dazzle in the field.

The log jam in Scranton Pennsylvania that the Yankees have is an interesting problem to have with the amount of players that could be called up to the next level. With Torres being added to this list, September call ups will be so exciting to watch when they finally roll around. With the Torres call up, it’s only a matter of time before my dad and I make our way done to Scranton to see the team play. We’ve discussed going done, but with the number one prospect in the farm system in Triple A, don’t forget the money that the bombers will rack in with this move. It’s a microscopic foot note but it is still there.

Something else that is being brought up with this move is the comparison in the amount of games Gleyber Torres had to Derek Jeter in Double A (Torres 32; Jeter 34), we need as a collective unit slow our roll. I haven’t compared Torres to Jeter, but to the people who have—are you forgetting that the Yankees JUST retired Jeter’s #2 in Monument Park just about 10 days ago.

The legend that Jeter was must be in a different conversation than everyone who currently puts a Yankee uniform on at any level. It’s the same conversations and comparisons that people must have had with Dimaggio and Mantle when Mantle came up through the system. Again, I’m not comparing Torres to Mantle by any means, but the conversations of following a legend is always tough and extremely polarizing. I am also not routing against Gleyber Torres, I hope he becomes a great Yankee that helps the bombers bring home hopefully multiple championships, I am just being realistic to what Torres has done and the players he is being compared too. Let’s not kid ourselves, Gleyber Torres has a LONG road ahead still. Let’s not give him the MVP, Rookie of the Year, and a World Series ring after 32 games in Double A.

Sources:(bleacherreport.com, baseballreference.com)

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