Yankees latest trade target suggests Gleyber Torres is not, in fact, a 2nd baseman

Gleyber Torres has had a great July at the plate, slashing .288/.373/.439 with an OPS of .813. If only his performance on defense was good enough to match.

Just remember. Gleyber Torres is a second baseman. He swears it.

Unfortunately for the New York Yankees, he didn't look like one on Monday against the Phillies, a day after making that declaration about where he should be playing after New York traded for Jazz Chisholm Jr.

Torres gave Yankees fans reason to pull their hair out early by double-clutching and failing to turn a double-play that would have ended the inning. Instead, the Phillies scored.

Lucky for Torres, New York's offense showed up with their power bats charged up, piling on the runs to make the second baseman's errors irrelevant. That's errors plural because, of course, he couldn't help himself later either.

Officially his lone error of the game, Torres bobbled a ground ball and allowed a runner to take first. It was his 14th error of the season, tops in MLB.

(For more news and rumors, check out MLB Insider Robert Murray’s work on The Baseball Insiders podcast, and join the discord to get the inside scoop as we near the July 30 MLB trade deadline.)

Yankees reported trade pursuit of Yandy Diaz could push Gleyber Torres out at second base

If Torres wanted to prove that the Yankees shouldn't trade him before the deadline, his hit, walk and run would make his case for him. However, his defense continues to leave everything to be desired.

For now, Chisholm is slotting in at third base, a completely new position. Is giving Chisholm his more natural position and moving Torres to third base the answer? He can barely play second base, so that may not be the best option.

So, it's intriguing that there's a recent report from Francys Romero suggesting the Yankees are one of three teams in talks to trade for Rays infielder Yandy Diaz. New York would have to beat out the Pirates and Astros for the first and third baseman.

Diaz isn't exactly a defensive stallwart at third base but he would allow Chisholm to shift over to second. The Yankees wouldn't have to trade Torres, but they wouldn't have to depend on him defensively anymore. At least not as often.