January 4, 2019

Acquired by the Yankees for now-teammate Aroldis Chapman in 2016, New York Yankees infielder Gleyber Torres was one of the top prospects in baseball coming through the Cubs and Yankees systems. After Starlin Castro was traded in the Giancarlo Stanton deal, Torres took over as the Yankees 2B in May and had a .271/.340/.480 slash line in 484 plate appearances. Hitting 24 home runs and driving in 77 runs, Torres finished third in the American League Rookie of the Year voting. Torres had a .863 OPS in 55 games for Double-A Trenton and Triple-A Scranton Wilkes-Barre in 2017, but had his season limited by Tommy John surgery. This was likely why he opened the season with Triple-A once again in 2018, but he had 41 extra-base hits once he was called up to the majors. After posting a .905 OPS in the first half, though, his OPS dropped to .733 in the second half. This came with a drop in hard-hit ball rate from 42.5% to 34.2%, but a drop in soft hit ball rate from 15% to 12.9%. He did see a drop in line drive rate and fly ball rate, and a rise in ground ball rate to 25.5%, but his 24.5% line drive rate for the season was still solid. Much like his rookie compatriot Miguel Andujar, Torres will need to duplicate a strong rookie season. The difference with Torres, though, is that he will have the opportunity to be an impact offensive player at multiple middle infield positions with Gregorius out for a few months. Given that fact, and that the 2018 season may have just scratched the surface of Torres’ abilities, there is a good shot that he is a top-50 player by the end of 2019.--Chris Zolli