SPANISH HARLEM – In 2016 the New York Yankees did something that many fans of this generation never saw before… wave the white flag. I’m sure a lot of Yankee haters rejoiced because that meant the Yankees would rebuild and rebuilding meant a lot of losing but Brian Cashman saw a way to recoup a bunch of prospects. That year this organization traded Ardolis Chapman for a prospect named Gleyber Torres, who was the prize player of the group. What happened next was stories of how good he was at such a young age, how well he understood the strike zone. He was a natural shortstop who looked up to fellow Venezuelan Omar Vizquel. What we didn’t know was that he might be better than advertised.
Gleyber is just a kid at 21 years of age but he definitely belongs among the best players in the Major Leagues. The crazy thing is that he was so good last year that he would of been called up at some point before a season ending injury derailed his season. It was tough to see him in Spring Training struggle this year after we all saw him rake last year and almost make the major league club when Didi Gregorius was hurt to start the year. We all wanted him to stay but the higher ups thought it would be better to have him conquer Triple A and not rush the issue. Was it the right call? We will never know because he never got to show what he could for a full season. This year we see why so many people were high on this kid. This guy is the real deal, showing an uncanny ability to play within himself and excel.
Torres is hitting over .300 and just hit another homer yesterday to extend his homer streak at 3 games. So far when he hits his homers, they are more than clearing the fence and has showed the type of power that could potentially have 30 homer seasons in his future. He is a special player but that’s where I will leave it because now we another player that’s being compared to Derek Jeter. It’s already making sick after having Aaron Judge go through the same thing a year ago. I know Jeter was great, I saw it for myself but let’s stop comparing every young good player to Derek. I know people see Torres play well as a rookie and it brings back flashbacks of a young Jeter. Gleyber will be a great player in his own right if he can stay healthy and he will create his niche on this team but lets stop comparing these two because we didn’t know what Jeter would become when he broke into the league and we don’t know what Torres is capable of… just enjoy watching this kid play.
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