Yankees: Gleyber Torres’ latest Instagram post is a direct message to all the haters

Gleyber Torres is among a few New York Yankees players facing a lot of pressure heading into the 2021 season.

It will be his (true) first full campaign as the team’s starting shortstop, and he’ll be tasked with dispelling the bad optics from the shortened 2020 campaign.

Last year, Torres was said to have shown up to summer camp out of shape and then proceeded to put forth a defensive performance that, to say the least, lacked inspiration, which didn’t result in the greatest of commentary from general manager Brian Cashman.

And despite the increasing discourse of this being a very crucial year for Torres to prove that he can be the team’s shortstop of the future, it’s good to see that our guy isn’t worried about it.

The young slugger took to Instagram the day after he responded to Cashman’s comments about being out of shape last year, and does he look as ready as ever to flip the script.

It’s clear he’s heard what people have been saying.

And he should be nothing but calm while everyone else is “nervous” to a degree. Gleyber’s start to his MLB career has been nothing short of phenomenal and many let the outlier of a pandemic-shortened season affect what he did in 2018 and 2019 — two seasons in which he was named an All-Star.

Even with his lackluster 2020 showing, Torres is still slashing .271/.340/.493 for his career, and managed to keep his bat in tip-top shape despite bad defense in 2019 (-12 DRS at second base). It’s always been clear his defense needs to be refined. And to be honest, he jus needs to be serviceable.

While last year didn’t offer much hope, that doesn’t mean you throw the recent past in the trash. Everyone knows what Gleyber is capable of and he knows what he has to do in order to put a stranglehold on his status at short.

As for his defense to start 2021? Nerves be gone (for the moment)!

Looks like a pretty calm play to us! Slick move.

And how about a double!

Let’s see more of that over the next month so we can head into 2021 with everyone feeling good and the doubters’ volume at a minimum.

Yankees: Gleyber Torres doesn’t sound happy with Cashman’s fitness comments

New York Yankees infielder Gleyber Torres doesn't exactly sound thrilled with Brian Cashman's assertion he wasn't in shape last year.