Torres has case to be top priority

One in a series.

Pretend you are Brian Cashman, and Hal Steinbrenner is on the phone. The owner tells you he wants to offer Gary Sanchez or Aaron Judge a multi-year deal. However, he only wants to make the offer to one of them.

Which one do you suggest to Steinbrenner? A catcher with raw power whose average since the beginning of 2018 has declined, is considered below-average defensively and prone to lower-body injuries? Or a right fielder with even bigger right-handed power who has missed significant time during the past two years due to injuries?

Sanchez or Judge? “Neither,’’ you tell Steinbrenner. “Why not?’’ he asks.

“I would rather do that with Gleyber Torres,’’ is your reply.

“Tell me why?’’ says an intrigued Steinbrenner.

Don’t laugh.

Sanchez and Judge make sense, too, but in Torres the Yankees have a budding superstar who plays in the middle of the infield and hits with power. And he won’t be 24 until December. Judge turned 28 last month and Sanchez will be 28 in December.

Even if there are no games this season, players will be credited with service time. That means Sanchez and Judge will be free agents following the 2022 season.

Torres, who was scheduled to make $675,600 this year, can’t be a free agent until after the 2024 season, so he could be more willing to secure a long-term contract.

When Braves outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr. was 21, he agreed to an eight-year, $100 million deal that runs through the 2026 season, so there is a barometer about longterm deals for young players. And the Yankees, to a degree, did it with Aaron Hicks (seven years for $70 million) and Luis Severino (four years at $40 million) and watched both get hurt.

So there is the risk factor to consider.

Despite Torres being an AL AllStar in his first two seasons and slugging a team-leading 38 homers, driving in 90 runs and posting a .853 OPS last year, there are questions about him.

Front and center is whether he can play shortstop on a full-time basis after the Yankees watched Didi Gregorius leave for Philadelphia as a free agent. Scouts got to watch Torres at short last year before Gregorius made it back from Tommy John surgery and noted

Torres’ footwork wasn’t as smooth as it is at second base.

Torres committed 11 errors in 77 games at short and nine in 65 games at second.

And there are questions about his range, though that might be overrated considering how many times the Yankees have three infielders on the same side of the infield when they shift. Five errors in 10 spring training games raised eyebrows, too.

“Not really good right now,’’ Torres told The Post’s Ken Davidoff on March 11 about his defense. That was one day before the coronavirus ended spring training and led to the regular season being put on hold.

“He is Gleyber Torres. I don’t see anything different,’’ Cashman said the same week when asked about Torres’ defense, but the GM did admit he had been tied up with administrative work which cut into his live looks at games.

Yet, there is no denying the bat is legitimate. Yes, last year’s ball was likely constructed with lower laces and wound tighter, which helped hitters set a major league record for homers with 6,776.

In 267 big league games, Torres is hitting .275 with 62 homers, 167 RBIs and a .849 OPS. In the same two-year period, Judge has played 214 games and Sanchez 195. Judge has hit .276 with 54 homers, driven in 122 runs and posted a .920 OPS. Sanchez’s average is .211 with 52 homers with 130 RBIs and a .776 OPS.

So who gets the offer?