It’s certainly been an April to forget thus far for the New York Yankees. Currently five games under .500 and in last place in the AL, not much has gone right for New York to start the season. One major problem the Yankees have dealt with early on is the struggles of shortstop Gleyber Torres. The 24-year-old has struggled on both sides of the ball and has been an early detriment to the team’s success.
In 51 at-bats thus far, Torres has managed just 10 hits, which is an average of just .196. He’s driven in just one run all season, and his OPS sits well below .600 as only two of his hits have been for extra bases. Dating back to last season, Torres has gone 22 consecutive games without a home run.
Torres’s offensive struggles are concerning, especially for someone who’s typically a major threat in the heart of the Yankee order. He isn’t getting many hits, and few of those hits are for extra bases. In this modern age of baseball, extra-base hits win games, not a parade of singles. However, because of the offensive struggles throughout the entire Yankee order, there isn’t really anywhere to move Torres.
Defensively, Torres hasn’t looked much better. In 14 games at shortstop, he has -2 defensive runs saved and a -0.1 dWAR. Torres has performed a bit better on defense over the past week or so, but he made several inexcusable mistakes during the team’s first homestand.
The Yankees haven’t had much going on either side of the ball to start the season, and Gleyber Torres certainly hasn’t been an exception. His poor defense and offesive struggles have been a huge part as to why the Yankees sit 5-10. Things need to change for Torres, and if he can get hot, it could possibly ignite the entire team.
New York is off on Monday ahead of a two-game series with the Atlanta Braves to cap off the homestand. From there, the Yankees travel to Cleveland for four games with the Indians and then Baltimore for four games with the Orioles.