Tough to put price on the DJ factor

Gleyber Torres better show up to spring training, whenever that may be, in much better shape for the 2021 season than he did last year.

Yankees GM Brian Cashman was blunt in his assessment of Torres’ first full season at shortstop in an interview with the YES Network on Thursday night. It was not flattering.

“I think he’s a better second baseman than shortstop, but I think that he can play shortstop,” Cashman told the network’s Meredith Marakovitz. “I think that ultimately, he struggled in the beginning of the pandemic 60game season because after the (first) spring training shutdown into (the second) spring training, he did not — and I’m not playing the blame game — but he wasn’t in the best shape to start the second spring training. So upon his return from the shutdown, we spent a little bit of a first half of the season playing catch up, maybe the first 40 or 45 days of the season playing catch up.”

Obviously the Yankees’ plans for Torres hinge on what moves they make this winter. First and foremost, his spot at shortstop, the position he came up playing, would largely depend on whether the Yankees re-sign second baseman DJ LeMahieu. Cashman, who has been fairly limited in his comments this winter, said Thursday there was no update on that front, but admitted the obvious: LeMahieu is their priority.

“We’re gonna try to keep him here,” Cashman said. “He loves playing in New York loves playing for the New York Yankees and our fan base, and he clearly loves his teammates. So there’s a lot of things in our favor.

“Ultimately, it comes down to the financial opportunity that we provide, as measured to the financial opportunities that others are providing,” Cashman continued. “That’s the big unknown, and only him and his family and his representation can navigate that.”

If the Yankees cannot re-sign LeMahieu, it would obviously be easy to slide Torres back to second base and find a shortstop. There are several options there with Cleveland looking to move Francisco Lindor. Or the Yankees could sign one of the available free-agent shortstops as a placeholder for an exceptional class of shortstops coming on the free-agent market after the 2021 season, which includes Lindor, Javier Baez and Corey Seager.

The Yankees said they took significant financial hits in the pandemic-shortened season, which was played without fans until the NLCS and World Series. Cashman acknowledged there are some financial limitations, but also said that is mostly because of large commitments they already have on the books, alluding to the $324 million deal to sign Gerrit Cole last winter.

“Certainly, there’s a lot more discussions and things to navigate that we’ve had to deal with,” Cashman said.

“There’s no one that provides more ... we will be the number one payroll regardless of anything that’s happened, which is a huge statement in its own right,” Cashman continued carefully when asked about being handcuffed by finances. “Since we’ve made a huge commitment to others already, it affects your flexibility, viability as you move forward. So every step that is taken needs to be carefully worked through and measured with all your needs as an organization in the present because ultimately we have a team we feel can compete for the World Championship.”

So there will be limits to what the Yankees can do with Torres next year, but watching him play defense in 2020 was not pretty.

Torres recorded nine errors at shortstop in the regular season, tied for the second most at that position in the majors, and two in the playoffs. He posted a -9 defensive runs saved and a -4 outs above average. He was in the bottom two percentile in outs above average, according to Baseball Savant.

Cashman may not have been happy with Torres’ heavier body and slower step this season, but that 23-year old bat has a lot of pop in it and is always going to find a way