THE INFIELD CONUNDRUM—HOW GLEYBER TORRES' PERFORMANCE MAKES ALL OF THE DIFFERENCE

Source: John Minchillo/AP

You've heard of the domino effect, right? If one falls just right, they all fall, in complete precision. It starts with all of the pieces upright and ends with all of them leaning forward. Well, that is how it is with Gleyber Torres and his performance at shortstop. His performance impacts the rest of the infield, where they play and how they will potentially need to cover for him should he fall. It is the great infield conundrum, and it starts and ends with Gleyber Torres and his ability to step up or fall forward.

The New York Daily News wrote, "Torres had a breakout season playing almost half the year at shortstop in 2019, hitting a career-high 38 home runs and slashing .279/.337/.535 with an .871 OPS. That power was enough for the Yankees to overlook his defensive woes and let Didi Gregorious walk as a free agent and move ahead with Torres as their shortstop. But it disappeared." His bat stopped making up for his lackluster performance and his inability to perform at shortstop displaced DJ LeMahieu at second, caused the Yankees to use Gio Urshela at shortstop and basically disrupted the flow of the entire infield.

To date, the Yankees have done nothing to plug the shortstop issue. And as a result, will be in the same situation they were last season. Recall that Torres put up abysmal numbers last season at the plate and committed 18 errors over 43 total in his career. Unacceptable. In 2020, Torres showed up to spring training out of shape. A shortened spring training will certainly impact Torres and his teammates, putting the Yankees at even more of a disadvantage.

“We’re just getting work in where we can,’’ Luke Voit said last week. “It’s a little bit harder not being able to use the [team] facility, but we don’t want to get too far behind for whenever we do start," reported the New York Post. With an unstable middle infielder, the Yankees chemistry is unsettled, which includes Voit who needs to try and "clean up" bad throws by his shortstop. And if the Yankees trade Torres, the team needs to get to know their new shortstop whether they go all in with big name or settle for an in between guy as they ready their farm for shortstop.

Source: Sports Illustrated

Will Torres play second? Will Torres play short? Will Torres play for another team? These are all questions that plague the Yankees who's shortened off season has certainly hurt their chances to build a championship team. Gleyber Torres is a pinnacle position player that holds a lot of weight in where other players play and even how they perform. The infield conundrum is real—just another domino in the Yankees free fall in the American League East.  

--Suzie Pinstripe
BYB Senior Managing Editor
Twitter: @suzieprof