Yankees: New York Post pitches wild Gleyber Torres-Trevor Story trade

Many Yankees fans might be eager to blow it all up after a 3-5 start, but come on, folks. It’s time to think rationally.

OK, I…I thought rationally for a second, and I’m still angry. That didn’t work.

An under-.500 start for the presumptive American League favorite will leave even the most even-handed fans ticked off, especially considering every wart this team has ever shown in the recent past appears to have reemerged.

Defensive struggles? Check. Inability to win at the Trop? You bet. Offense mailing in at-bat after at-bat after being kicked in the teeth? Sure. Where do we sign up?

This befuddling stuck-in-the-mud start has Yankees writers from all corners of the city pitching their most off-the-wall solutions, but Joel Sherman’s latest column enters the realm of the impossible.

After Friday’s exceedingly dull loss, Sherman pitched trading the scuffling Gleyber Torres for Rockies shortstop Trevor Story midseason. But would the Yankees really drop Torres like a bag of rocks that quickly?

And, uh, would a Story trade really cost a 24-year-old controllable All-Star like Torres? Because recent history says absolutely not.

Would the Yankees trade Gleyber Torres for Trevor Story?

To be fair to Sherman, the article delves far deeper than the surface level “Story-for-Torres” swap. Eventually, he realizes that such a deal would probably necessitate expansion, and he goes ahead and adds Deivi Garcia on the Yankees’ end and Rockies ace German Marquez.

Now that is somewhat plausible, presuming a baked-in extension for Story (which is a seriously wishful assumption, given the way this Yankees team handles its finances).

Would the Yankees be better served in their championship pursuit with Story at short over Torres? It seems that way; as Sherman claims, it’s disingenuous to call Torres’ tentative output at short a “small sample” anymore.

But couldn’t they just attempt to pry Story loose (in his walk year!) with a lesser package of prospects, and call it a day? Why does an All-Star 24-year-old have to change hands? Remember when the Rockies dealt Nolan Arenado a few weeks back for a potpourri of middling prospects? Do we recall when Manny Machado went to the Dodgers in his final summer before free agency for…(checks notes) Dean Kremer and four ancillary pieces, including Breyvic Valera?

Sherman loses the narrative a bit when he goes on to compare a potential star-for-star swap as the 2016 Aroldis Chapman trade in reverse; if that were the case, wouldn’t the Yankees be giving up someone far more unproven?

As it stands, most of the executives Sherman polled agreed with us; it’s simply unpalatable from a control standpoint.

A Story trade would be the Yankees doing Chapman in reverse. When they got Torres, he was a touted prospect who, if manipulated, would have seven years of service time. Now, he has this year plus three more control years as an established player.I ran this concept by four non-Yankees/Rockies executives. One loved it. The other three said control years are so valuable that the Yankees were giving up too much for a few months of Story.

Call us insane, but the best version of the 2021 Yankees doesn’t include Torres at short — but it also doesn’t include Torres in Colorado.

Recent history tells us there’s still a middle ground here.

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