The Yankees announced Sunday that they have reached agreement on a one-year contract with Gleyber Torres, avoiding salary arbitration. MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reports that the deal is worth $9.995MM, right at the midway point between the $10.2MM sum he requested and the $9.7MM number that New York put forth when arbitration figures were exchanged earlier this winter.
Torres commanded $6.25 million in 2022 — his second year of arbitration eligibility — and went on to bounce back from a power standpoint with 24 home runs and 76 RBI in 140 regular-season games for the AL East champions. He totaled only nine homers over 127 games played in 2021, when his negotiated salary came in at $4 million. Torres seemed a bit more settled in general last year following a more permanent move from shortstop to second base. But he does have some work to do in the OBP department, as his .310 on-base percentage from 2022 was a personal low. That number finished at .331 in 2021, .356 in 2020, .337 in 2019 and .340 in his rookie year in 2018.
Torres drew back-to-back All-Star nods in his first two major league seasons before regular defensive mishaps and inconsistent offensive production threatened to derail such a promising start to his career. He just turned 26 years old and is under the Yankees’ control through the 2024 campaign. They’ll hope that he can carry over the hard-hit-rate rebound in 2023 while returning to overall form as a worthy top-of-the-lineup presence.
Most projected lineups have Torres batting leadoff for the Yanks this season, table-setting there ahead of Aaron Judge, Anthony Rizzo, Giancarlo Stanton, Josh Donaldson, Harrison Bader, Aaron Hicks, Oswald Peraza and Jose Trevino.
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