New York media has ripped the Gleyber Torres’ defense a lot in 2020. They often cite his poor performance at the position during the now canceled Spring Training. This notion is one that’s rooted in the idea that Didi Gregorius at SS was the better defender. Didi’s faster than Torres and it’s not particularly close when you look at Baseball Savant’s Sprint Speed metrics. So Didi should cover the left side of the infield better, a big part of playing shortstop. The issue with that is, it’s simply a theory, as in reality, it’s the opposite. The better defender at SS is Gleyber, and the duo of him and DJ in the middle infield is better than having Didi patrol that pivotal defensive position.
Comparing Didi and Gleyber
These two will be compared defensively in 2020 by New York Yankees fans to see if Gleyber at 2B was better than having him at short. That’s a fair thing to do, understanding who the better defender is will judge the need for a SS after this season. let’s take a direct comparison of two stat lines and see which is better.
Player A:
-3 OAA/-1 DRS/-2.1 UZR
Player B:
-13 OAA/-10 DRS/ 0.2 UZR
So the better overall defender is Player A, and who does that happen to be? Gleyber Torres’ SS metrics, Player B was Didi Gregorius’ metrics. The better defender at SS is Gleyber, that’s not even close, blowing Didi out in OAAÂ and DRS. This was also with him not getting many reps at SS, meaning he had less time to practice and get better at shortstop, unlike Didi Gregorius. If you’re talking about the New York Yankees’ shortstop play in 2020, it will be objectively better. Take the bias out of the thinking and you can see that Gleyber isn’t a horrific defender.
Looking At The Big Picture
The stats you saw from “Player A” weren’t all that impressive, even if a lot better than Didi’s. Baseball Savant has a chart to show the OAA of a player in certain situations, and it tells a story for Torres. With Torres’ starting position at SS, he has more success when he’s not playing a special shift, if he’s starting at a traditional SS position he has lots of success, with a positive OAA playing straight up. It’s when he’s shading to 3rd or playing towards 2B that he has negative OAA numbers. This is supported by his grades based on the ending position. When he’s drastically in or the play takes him far from 1st and leaning to third he has a whopping -4.1 OAA. He has a hot zone near the traditional SS position, and it shows that his flaw is a fixable issue: making plays closer to the 3rd.
Gleyber Doesn’t Need To Be a Superstar Defender
Gleyber Torres will not be a Javier Baez caliber defender at SS, but he won’t be garbage. He’ll be a solid defender, having a 2-3 OAA year in and year out. For Yankee fans complaining about Torres not being a superstar defender, you must’ve really hated the last 24 years of New York Yankees baseball. The same 24 years that brought both Derek Jeter and Didi Gregorius at SS, who combined for a total 88.5 fWAR. Jeter was a well documented bad defender and Didi Gregorius’ -5 career DRS isn’t fantastic either. You’ll probably have someone who’s a solid defender, and that’s not bad at all.
When struggles are only documented based on an “eye-test” you should be skeptical of it’s results. Objectivity is often a cold truth we may not be looking for, but it doesn’t make it any less true. Torres is a solid defending shortstop, and at the very least, better than what we had with Didi in 2019.