There's no way Yankees fans believe Gleyber Torres' comments on future in New York

Prior to the start of the 2024 season, Gleyber Torres made it known he wanted to re-sign with the New York Yankees and remain in the Bronx for the foreseeable future. The sad reality is that it probably won't happen.

Even if Torres was playing well right now and had a career 2024 campaign, he'd probably price himself out of New York. Now that he's playing poorly, he's setting himself up for the Yankees to let the relationship run its course, which always would've been the case.

For as talented as Torres is, he's equally absent. He disappears for long spells at the plate. He makes egregious defensive and baserunning gaffes. He's a seven-year MLB veteran. Fans understand mistakes happen, but the magnitude at which they occur for Torres is unacceptable.

The Yankees bet on Torres to come through in his contract year. So far, after over a month, he's failing. We're not sure why the Yankees would hitch their wagon to the same guy they tried to trade multiple times and put on blast multiple times, especially after he responded poorly after each of those instances.

But here we are. And not for a moment do Yankees fans believe Torres' uncertain future in New York has no effect on his disappointing start to the year.

Here's what the former All-Star told The Athletic last week:

"“Every year you have to do better and better,” Torres said. “My free-agent year is the same way. I can just control what I can control right now. I can just play well. At the end of the season, let’s see what happens. For now, I’m just really focusing on doing the right things for myself and also the team.”

"Basically, now I'm just focusing on the season. I'm just trying to get a great season with good numbers, stay healthy all season long, and let's see what happens at the end of the year."

This is not to insult Torres, but this is the same player who completely cratered after the 2022 trade deadline once he reportedly found out his name was floated in talks. In following month, Torres proceeded to hit .180 with a .464 OPS and played a significant role in the Yankees nearly blowing a 15.5-game lead in the AL East.

Then there was the pandemic-shortened season where he was moved to shortstop on a full-time basis. That year, Torres was called out by general manager Brian Cashman for showing up to camp out of shape, and the 2020 season was what began Torres' unfortunate spiral. He hit .243 with a .724 OPS across 42 games and made nine errors at shortstop.

This offseason, the Yankees reportedly never approached Torres about an extension despite his comments about wanting to be here. It's yet another sign that the team isn't prioritizing him, which plays into his previous experiences that resulted in poor play.

That's why when Torres says he's "focusing" on this season and will "see what happens" come free agency, it's hard to believe that's the pure sentiment when he's hitting .220 with a .550 OPS and four errors in 31 games.