Yankees: Gleyber Torres has arrived and he’s here to stay

On Sunday Yankees top prospect Gleyer Torres finally made his major league debut in a 5-1 over the Blue Jays. Unfortunately, he went 0-4 in his first taste of big league action, but make no mistake about it Torres is here to stay and the best is yet to come for him and the Yankees.

Sunday afternoon was a day Yankee fans have been waiting for ever since Brian Cashman and co. traded for Torres in the Aroldis Chapman deal back on July 25th, 2016. Torres was only 19 years old when he joined the Yankees organization, but he quickly showed that he was no ordinary teenage prospect and that he was on the fast track to the big leagues.

When the Yankees entered spring training in 2017 they had no plans for Torres to make the big league roster out of camp. However, after he hit .448 over the course of the spring many of the Yankees coaches took notice and believed the 20-year old Torres should fill in for the injured Didi Gregorius and open the season as the starting shortstop.

Torres ended up starting his season with Double-Trenton but he conquered that level in short order and was called-up to Triple-A Scranton Wilksbarre by May. It was with the Rail Raiders where Torres took off and made the Yankees seriously consider calling him up after Starlin Castro went down with an injury. Torres would have made his debut last year, but a freak slide into home plate injured his elbow in June and forced him to undergo Tommy John surgery on his left elbow.

This year there was a much better chance of Torres making the Opening Day roster and many expected him to do just that until he struggled mightily during spring training. It was unfair to expect Torres to go out there and play at a very high level this spring, especially considering it was his first game action since he underwent the surgery last June. Torres needed more time to wipe the rust off and sending him down to Triple-A allowed him to do just that.

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After Tyler Wade batted .086 to start the season with the Yankees and Torres batted .348 at Scranton it was only a matter of time before Gleyber would make his big league debut. Now that he’s here you can expect him to play just about every day and take control of the starting second base job.

When a team calls up a prospect of his caliber they’re not doing so to play him a couple of times a week and sit him on the bench. Torres is here to make an impact and as long as he doesn’t bat .086 he should never be sent down to the minor leagues again in his career.

Monday night was an important game and a memorable one for Torres as he picked up his first big league hit after starting his career 0-7. It was big to get the weight of added pressure off his shoulders and now he can just go out there stress-free and be the player we’re all expecting him to be. It might take some time for him to get into a groove, similar to what we’re now seeing from Miguel Andujar, but the Yankees will give him plenty of opportunities to prove himself.

As I said before Torres will have a longer leash than the one management gave Wade and the reason is that he’s the guy they always envisioned taking over the starting second base job at some point this season. It came sooner than we all expected, but now that Torres is here he’s there best option at second base to help this team reach their full potential.

Next: Andujar taking control of third base job

This Yankees team looks like they’re about to turn a corner with the offense starting to click on all cylinders. Once Torres joins in on the fun this team could really take off and be the unstoppable force we all expected them to be.