Eyes on Gley as Yankee callup looms
DETROIT — The “Gleyber Watch” was supposed to officially begin on Friday.
That’s when Gleyber Torres was thought to be eligible to come up to the Yankees with the team gaining an additional seventh year of control.
But as CBA rules state, because Torres is already on the 40-man roster, the team must wait 20 days from the start of the season — rather than 16 — to get that additional year of control, which means “Gleyber Watch” will begin on Wednesday instead.
Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean Torres, the 21-year-old super prospect, will be called up on the first day he is eligible.
Torres has hit .387 in the first eight games of the Triple-A year (31 atbats), only fueling the idea that he’ll come up to help the Yankees, who could use him in the infield.
“He’s off to a pretty good start. Getting a lot of hits. I don’t think he’s swinging great yet necessarily, but he’s been productive,” Aaron Boone said Friday. “The biggest thing for us was when we sent him down when we did during spring, obviously from the long layoff that he had with the (Tommy John) injury in the second half of the season, we just want to get him playing and hopefully find him in a good groove and obviously we feel he’s eventually going to come up here and help us.”
It could depend on how the Yankees are doing — or if the Bombers want to get him more at-bats at Triple-A Scranton before they deem him ready for a promotion.
“I think feeling that he’s in a good place, that he’s in a fairly good groove and rhythm of the season,” Boone said. “I know (top Yankees talent evaluator) Tim Naehring’s there now watching. I think just getting (Torres) feeling like he’s the player that we all believe he is and I think some of that is built around some of the rust that maybe we saw from the layoff from the second half of the season. So I think it’s getting him into the flow of the season and at that point we’ll probably have a decision we have to make.”
Miguel Andujar (.156) and Tyler Wade (.094) aren’t hitting at all. And Torres has been getting starts at both second and third.
The Bombers are still awaiting more test results on Brandon Drury (migraines, blurred vision). They need more production than they’ve been getting from those positions, so those youngsters will need to produce more with Torres, who would’ve been in the majors last year had he not gotten hurt, on the way. Their respective windows of opportunity could be brief.
“I don’t know,” Boone replied when asked if there was an extra sense of urgency to get Torres up with Wade scuffling. “This is the big leagues. There’s always urgency. That said, with Gleyber, somebody that we feel the way that we did about him, we want him to come here when we feel he’s in a good place and ready to contribute for the long haul. So I would say Gleyber plays more into those kinds of decisions more so than a short-term knee-jerk need.”
Utility man Ronald Torreyes has been solid in limited action, and it sure seems like he should get increased playing time with Wade failing to deliver with the bat. Torreyes started at second on Friday night against Tigers righty Mike Fiers, and delivered three more hits and an RBI, raising his average to .429 (21 at-bats).
Wade went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts and committed an error on Thursday. But the organization continues to believe in him regardless. And Boone thinks the fact that Wade is still dealing with flu-like symptoms could have something to do with him being off at the plate.
“I always consider giving Toe more playing time,” Boone said. “We’re always comfortable knowing what Toe is going to give us. But we also have a ton of confidence in Wader, although he’s struggling a little bit right now offensively, obviously.”
Beware Wade and Andujar: “Gleyber Watch” will begin soon enough.