Yankees Promote Gleyber Torres To AAA

CBS – Thanks in part to young players like Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez, the New York Yankees are in first place in the AL East following Sunday’s win over the Tampa Bay Rays (NY 3, TB 2). Many figured this would be a down year for the Yankees as they moved forward with their youth movement. That hasn’t been the case.

The Yankees may soon have another highly touted young player in their lineup. Top prospect Gleyber Torres, who came over from the Chicago Cubs in the Aroldis Chapman trade last year, was promoted from Double-A to Triple-A on Sunday.

Torres, 20, hit .273/.367/.496 with five home runs and nearly as many walks (17) as strikeouts (21) in 32 Double-A games this year. He also missed a little more than a week with a minor shoulder injury in April. At least one talent evaluator believes Torres is ready for the Triple-A assignment despite his limited Double-A time.

Big time move out of the Yankees to start the week. Since we’ve traded for Torres, he’s done nothing but deliver, so this move isn’t totally unexpected, but it may be earlier that most expected.

Since batting .448 with a pair of home runs and six doubles, fans in New York have been campaigning for Torres to get a shot in the big leagues every time an infielder makes an error or strikes out. At the end of the spring the team made it clear that they weren’t going to rush Torres through the minors, and this is no change from that plan. Gleyber has delivered at the Double-A level and holding him back even though scouts are reporting he’s “ready on both sides” would only increase the possibility of resentment towards the organization.

After becoming the youngest batting champion and league MVP in the Arizona Fall League, Torres has shown that he can compete against the best prospects throughout baseball. In all likelihood thats going to translate into a late season call up, because the Yankees need that flexibility. As we saw this weekend, pitching help is a necessity and with Torres being untouchable, having Torres ready to come to New York opens up trading some other pieces. With Chase Headley and Ronald Torreyes playing above their usual production levels, either of them could be part of a package with prospects for a pitcher and with Torres playing all over the infield, it would be easy to find him at-bats.

Most people thought this was going to be a down season with the Yankees finishing around .500. The young players on this team have shown that they can compete, but some holes have been exposed in the last 2 weeks. We’re still in a good place, but as an organization we are in a great position to make some moves that don’t involve giving up our future. That future include Gleyber Torres in pinstripes.