The New York Yankees acquired SS Gleyber Torres in a deadline trade with the Chicago Cubs. What sort of player is he?
Who Is He?
The Cubs signed Torres as part of the July 2nd international free agent class in 2013 with a $1.7M bonus out of Venezuela. The Cubs started him in 2014 with their Arizona Rookie League, where he hit .279/.372/.377 before being promoted to their Boise team as part of the short-season A-ball Northwest League to finish out the season, where he absolutely crushed it over 7 games. His overall line on the season was .297/.386/.440 with 2 home runs, 6 triples, and 10 stolen bases.
His 2015 season started with the Cubs’ South Bend team in the Midwest League, and he played well enough to push himself to their high-A team in the Carolina League at Myrtle Beach. Overall, Torres hit .287/.346/.376 with 3 home runs, 24 doubles, 5 triples, and 22 steals at 18 years old across two full season leagues. That level of play got him some high-end notice. He was ranked as the #41 prospect by both Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus. MLB.com ranked him as the #28 prospect in all of baseball.
His 2016 season began back at high-A Myrtle Beach, and he was playing very well, earning lots of notice before he was the key piece of a trade for the Cubs’ acquisition of Aroldis Chapman. On the 2016 season, he’s hit .274/.358/.429 with 10 home runs and 26 doubles with 20 stolen bases as a 19 year-old at high-A. That performance has him rated #24 in the midseason rankings at MLB.com, #34 at Baseball Prospectus, and #27 at Baseball America.
Next: Torres's scouting report