New York Yankees’ prospect Gleyber Torres is making the Arizona Fall League look oh-so-easy and establishing exactly why he was brought to this organization.
When the New York Yankees sent Aroldis Chapman to the Chicago Cubs for Gleyber Torres, no one truly knew what unproven prospect was shipped over to the Bronx.After all, the 19-year old had ways to go before being considered “major league ready,” so this move contained a reasonable amount of uncertainty, which has now dwindled into nothing but endless hope for what Torres can bring to the organization.
In his 31 games in High-A Tampa, he didn’t inspire his new organization with his bat as he would only slash .254/.341/.385 with 23 strikeouts but what he’s doing now in the Arizona Fall League is quite the showcase.
Through his first four games for the Scottsdale Scorpions, the shortstop is slashing .357/.471/.929 with two home runs, 13 total bases, and a OPS of 1.399. Out of his five total hits, four of them are extra-base hits.
They aren’t the arms he’s been seeing in High-A, though. His first home run on October 12 came off Artie Lewicki started in 12 games for Detroit’s Double-A Erie (Detroit Tigers organization) and has a minor league career home run rate of 0.5 HR/9.
Torres’ second home run on Tuesday afternoon came off Duane Underwood Jr., who was ranked by MLB.com as the 77th best prospect in baseball and sported a 1.93 ERA in High-A Myrtle Beach last season.
According to MLB Pipeline, Torres recognizes pitches adequately and packs a strong ability to scatter the ball to all sides of the field. Once Torres gets substantial in strength and masters the art of pulling pitches more frequently, scouts say he could provide his future team with 15 or more homers a year.
From the looks of it, that power has already started to rear its head.
Christian Kouroupakis covers the New York Yankees and Major League Baseball for ESNY. Interact with him and view his daily work by “liking” his facebook page and follow him on Twitter. All statistics are courtesy of Baseball Reference.com unless otherwise noted. Don’t hesitate to shoot him an email with any questions, criticisms, or concerns.
