The New York Yankees have had their cake, and now it’s time to eat it too. Gleyber Torres has fulfilled his time in purgatory and is ready to help the Yankees. What is the team waiting for?
Despite a report that Gleyber Torres is not in the lineup at the Yankees Triple-A team in Scranton tonight due to tightness in his back, Wednesday marks the day Torres can be called up to the big club with the Yankees retaining unrestricted rights to Torres for seven years, as opposed to the typical six years.
Ever since Brian Cashman stole Gleyber Torres from the pennant-hungry and desperate Chicago Cubs in a trade for Aroldis Chapman, a rental as it turned out when the Yankees resigned Chapman the following year, the cries from Yankees fandom to see their rising star at Yankees Stadium have reached the level of din proportions any number of times.
The din is not quite as loud this time, but the sensibility of adding Gleyber Torres to the Yankees 25-man roster has never been higher.
With the Yankees, Gleyber Torres has learned to take everything in stride as seen in this video when he learned that he was once again being sent to Triple-A for “refinement”:
Neither Tyler Wade (.094 BA, .171 OBP) or Miguel Andujar (.194 BA, .231 OBP), both of whom Yankees brass expected more from, have given the Yankees the juice they need, for a lineup missing Brandon Drury who is out with one of those who knows what injuries with no projected time frame for a return.
Ronald Torreyes has once again proven to be one of the best come off the bench players in major league baseball again this year and is leading the team with a .385 BA in the nine games he has played. Inserting Torreyes into the lineup as a regular, though, negates his value to the team as a reliable bench player.
Which brings us back to Gleyber Torres. In eleven games played for the Scranton Railriders, Torres has hit a robust .366 and has posted an OPS of .983. He has proven himself ready, but not so fast. Consider this Tweet from Erik Boland:
Boone on if Torres could be called up this week: “I’d say anything’s possible. We have have conversations about that kind of thing. Possible? Yes. Likely? Not necessarily.”
— Erik Boland (@eboland11) April 15, 2018
What is all that? Hardly anything the Yankees have done or said regarding Gleyber Torres has ever made sense, but this goes over the top. And the Yankees are emerging looking ever more silly as the scenario transpires.
The Yankees need both a second and third baseman at the moment. They also need a spark to their season which has been flat to date. With the exception of Aaron Judge who apparently has no concept of the Sophmore Jinx and Didi Gregorius who continues to soar into a stratosphere higher than even his previous All-Star season, the rest of the lineup has yet to show up.
Gleyber Torres may or may not be the Yankees answer to their prayers for the need to solidify an infield that is all over the diamond thus far this season. Torres has yet to prove he can battle major league pitching, but obviously, he can’t prove anything while taking at-bats in Scranton.
The Yankees can be fortified by the news that Greg Bird is taking swings off a tee and will be ready to resume full baseball activities next week. While the injection of both Torres and Bird into the Yankees lineup can make a difference, their presence will undoubtedly regenerate the excite surrounding the team that was present before the start of the season.
The Yankees are not in any way what you would call desperate. The team is holding their own, even if the Red Sox continue their rapid-fire advance towards another AL East title.
The time has come for the realization of Gleyber Torres in a New York Yankees uniform at Yankee Stadium. It can’t hurt, it can only make the team better. And after all, isn’t that what this is all about?
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