New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman was undoubtedly active at the deadline this year, but he was involved in many conversations for star players.
Notably, the Yankees had interest in superstar outfielder Juan Soto, from the Washington Nationals. They also checked in on Milwaukee Brewers stud closer Josh Hader, and pitcher Pablo Lopez from the Miami Marlins. However, all of them had a similar trend, infielder Gleyber Torres was a desired piece of the puzzle.
According to Brendan Kuty of NJ.com, the Yankees spoke to the Nationals about including Gleyber Torres in a deal for Juan Soto and also floated him to the Brewers in exchange for star closer Josh Hader.
Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald indicated he was involved in talks for pitcher Pablo Lopez, as well.
This season, Torres is hitting .254 with a 31% on-base rate, 16 homers, and 46 RBIs. At 25 years old, Torres still has two years left of team control before he hits free agency in 2025.
- Yankees are hoping to get a big part of their lineup back Monday
- Yankees activate exciting outfield prospect off of IL, remains in Triple-A
- Yankees are ‘actively’ targeting help at 3B at the trade deadline
The Yankees are seeing the return of Gleyber Torres as an offensive weapon:
In the middle of a resurgent season, it is no secret the Yankees consider trading him and maximizing his value after two down years. With juiced baseballs in 2019, Torres hit 38 homers with 90 RBIs. Even hitting 16 now is considered a massive uptick in production.
Defensively, he started at second base, moved over to shortstop, and then reversed course to help improve his efficiency. So far this season, Torres hosts a .977 fielding percentage over 707 innings of action. This is the first time since his rookie season he’s enjoyed positive defensive runs saved above average with 4. In fact, he’s showcased more range with 1.7 range runs above average and a 0.5 zone rating in runs above average.
In the end, the Yankees decided to keep Torres, making two big splashes in the pitching department without sending him away via trade. They acquired Frankie Montas and Scott Effross to help the starting rotation and bullpen, but the infield still has a few spotty players, notably Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Josh Donaldson.
There’s a good argument to make that the Yankee should pull up Oswald Peraza from Triple-A Scranton to compete with IKF, who simply offers no power in the batter’s box and fails to make strong contact consistently.