Yankees prospect Gleyber Torres needs Tommy John surgery
By John McCarty
Top New York Yankees prospect Gleyber Torres to miss remainder of 2017 season due to elbow surgery.
Gleyber Torres, one of the top prospects in baseball and the top prospect in the Yankees system, will miss the remainder of the 2017 season. The news is a huge blow to the that traded for him last offseason at the trade deadline from the Chicago Cubs. New York was anxious to get the 20-year-old up to the majors after he was hitting .309 at Triple-A.
The Yankees announced the injury was to Torres non-throwing (left) elbow and expect him to be ready to go by spring training in 2018.
As Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors points out, this is especially crushing for New York. After recently moving him to third base in the minors (at least temporarily) from his natural shortstop position, there was thought Torres could come up soon and headline alongside Aaron Judge. The hope was Torres would prove capable of replacing the struggling Chase Headley at the hot corner. Headley has struggled, posting a batting average of .244 and with little power.
Torres had started the season at Double-A and had been promoted to Triple-A in late May. Torres had a combined batting average this season of .287 and and .480 slugging percentage. Now, he will have to wait until 2018 to continue his climb towards the major leagues.
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As for the Yankees, the news, while crushing, does allow the organization time to make a move for the position at or near the trade deadline. Mike Moustakas of the Royals (if he’s made available) and Todd Frazier of the Chicago White Sox. Perhaps complicating their pursuit of a third baseman is that Red Sox are rumored to be interested in adding a third baseman, and reportedly have scouted both players.