Could the Mariners trade for Yankees star Gleyber Torres?
Gleyber Torres has long been rumored to be available via trade. Do the Mariners and Yankees match up for a trade involving Torres?
The Mariners have an obvious need at second base. They currently have Josh Rojas, Dylan Moore, Sam Haggerty, Jose Caballero, and newly acquired Luis Urias from the Boston Red Sox. While the roster i currently full of middle infielders, I still believe the Mariners need a true, full-time second baseman. I have written about the Mariners trading for one twice before, where I had the Mariners trading for Nolan Gorman of the St. Louis Cardinals and Jonathan India from the Cincinnati Reds.
If the Mariners were to add another infielder to the mix, I hope they add one who can play every day, and hit near the middle of the lineup. Moore, Haggerty, and others have played in too many games over the past few seasons, with little to no production to show for it. This is not the same Mariners roster from 2011 back when the team was not competing. It is time to find a real, star player who can help this team move from "playoff hopefuls" to "World Series contenders". I believe Gleyber Torres is the kind of player who can do that for the Mariners.
Who is Gleyber Torres?
Torres has been the Yankees shortstop and second baseman since the 2018 season. He was once a top 5 overall prospect, behind the likes of Shohei Ohtani, Ronald Acuna Jr., Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and Eloy Jiminez. Gleyber will be entering his age-27 season in 2024, in his last year of arbitration. According to MLB Trade Rumors, his arb estimate is $15,300,000 for 2024. He is a 2-time All-Star and placed 17th in MVP voting in 2019.
He has a career slash line of .267/.334/.454/.789, with a career OPS+ of 115. His full contact approach showed best in 2023, where he struck out just 14.6%, as opposed to his career 21.9% through the 2022 season. A 7.3% drop in strikeouts is an insane drop, and one I would hope he could maintain if he were to become a Mariner. He also walked 10% of his at-bats in 2023, a 1.4% increase from his career average through the 2022 season.
What would the cost be for acquiring Gleyber Torres?
I am not going to use the Baseball Trade Simulator, because they have shown to have some inaccurate values. For instance, they value Torres at 6.9, and value Dylan Moore at 6.0. Torres and Moore are not even from the same planet, baseball-wise. BTS is sometimes a good tool to get an idea of a player's values, but sometimes their values are just plain laughable.
The Yankees are not a normal, rebuilding team that is looking to trade off assets for minor leaguers. So trading a couple of prospects for their starting second baseman isn't going to get the job done. The Yankees always seem to need pitching, and the Mariners seem to have the pitching to deal. But would the Mariners really give up Bryce Miller or Bryan Woo for 1 year of Gleyber Torres? I sure hope not. Gleyber is a great player, but the idea of trading one of the starters for him just seems like a huge overpay.
What else could the Yankees be interested in? Our friends over at Yanks Go Yard published a piece, where NY Post writer Joel Sherman proposed a "Gleyber Torres for Matt Brash" swap. The Mariners have moved bullpen pieces for offensive help before (See Paul Sewald, Eric Swanson, Kendall Graveman and others). Could they go that route again? sure they could. Matt Brash has been a monster for the Mariners. But in this scenario, I would like to keep Brash around.
Mariners acquire: INF Gleyber Torres, RHP Michael King
Yankees acquire: RHP Bryan Woo
Yankee fans may scoff at this deal, and maybe Mariners fans will, too. I get it, 1 year of Torres for Bryan Woo is risky. Woo proved he is a Big Leaguer in 2023. But the Mariners are overloaded with starting pitching. They currently have Luis Castillo, Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryce Miller, Marco Gonzales, and even Robbie Ray after the All-Star break. The Mariners have also been linked to Blake Snell and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Signing one of those guys would make Woo even more expendable, and moving him for a bat like Torres and a solid bullpen arm like King, who has 2 years left of control, has me excited. As always, go Mariners!