Yankees should consider buying out Gleyber Torres’ arbitration years

Considerations

I believe that the Yankees should make every effort to extend Torres now. What will happen is another question altogether. Let’s look at it from a few angles & vantage points:

Brian Cashman

Cashman may wait to see what transpires before deciding what to do. Significant money will come off the books in the form of:

• Aroldis Chapman ($17.2M), if he opts out, as expected
• Didi Gregorius ($11.75M)
• Edwin Encarnacion ($8M)
• C.C Sabathia ($8M)
• Brett Gardner ($7.5M)
• Dellin Betances ($7.25M)
• Austin Romine ($1.8M)

If Gregorius walks, Cashman could pivot and choose to focus on Torres and LeMahieu as the future middle infield tandem. Moves that could decrease the likelihood of an extension this year include:

• Acquiring an expensive arm, such as Gerrit Cole or Stephen Strasburg (if he opts out)
• Re-signing any pending free agents
• Extending other players such as Judge or Sanchez

Typically, it’s not in Cashman’s DNA to extend players early. However, he’s broken tradition lately by signing Aaron Hicks and Luis Severino to early, if not quite as early extensions.

Regardless, Cashman might offer an Acuña-type extension based off of the pure value of the deal. Whether Torres accepts it or not is another question. Speaking of which…