Ex-Yankees All-Star Still Angry Over Departure From New York
Over the winter, the Yankees’ fortunes took some pretty dramatic twists and turns. Things kicked off, of course, with the pursuit of outfielder Juan Soto, the star slugger for whom the team had paid a king’s ransom the previous offseason, and who had helped fuel the Yankees’ trip to the 2024 World Series. Soto departed for the Mets’ $765 million mega-offer, of course, forcing the Yankees to pivot to Plan B, which included adding outfielder Cody Bellinger, first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, starter Max Fried and ace reliever Devin Williams.
But in the shuffle of those transactions came a move that was pretty clearly in the offing for the entirety of the 2024 season–the team would be moving on from second baseman Gleyber Torres, who was a free agent and had manned the position for the past seven years. It was not a surprise, because Torres had struggled with the bat (.257 batting average) in 2024, and had been called out more than once by manager Aaron Boone for a failure to hustle. But it is a surprise in the big picture, because in his first two seasons with the Yankees, it looked like Torres was in line to be one of the next great slugging infielders in the Bronx.
He slashed .271/.340/.480 as a rookie and followed it up with .278/.337/.535 in Year Two. Torres hit 62 homers and drove in 167 runs in those two seasons.
