Why Hasn't Gleyber Torres Been Hitting For Power This Season?

NEW YORK — When Gleyber Torres mashed 38 home runs in his sophomore season, it looked like the shortstop was poised to be one of the biggest power threats in the Yankees' lineup for years to come. 

Since then, however, the 24-year-old has struggled in the power department. Torres has hit just two home runs in 2021 through the first third of the regular season. 

In fact, if you factor in last year's shortened campaign, Torres has homered only five times in his last 347 plate appearances (87 games).

With the entire offense in a funk, Yankees hitting coach Marcus Thames was peppered with questions about cold spells from New York's lineup on Tuesday. When asked about Torres' lack of power, Thames had no trouble diagnosing the shortstop's biggest issue at the plate.

"There have been some mechanical things that we've been looking at and he's trying to get that fixed and he's working hard at it," Thames explained. "He's just got to trust it once you get in the game."

Thames said that he and the coaching staff have been trying to help Torres stay behind the baseball a little bit longer. By allowing pitches to travel for an additional split second, Torres would be able to barrel up the baseball more often, getting back to the pop we saw from him a few years ago.

It's one thing to execute in the cage and on the field in batting practice, Thames added, but the real challenge is to get those adjustments to translate in game. 

To be fair, it hasn't been all bad for Torres this year. The phenom went on a hot stretch toward the end of May, hitting .611 (11-for-18) with a homer and eight RBI over five games. With that torrid stretch included, Torres is now batting .259 (43-for-166) on the year in 45 games played. 

Home run drought aside, Torres' advanced metrics are concerning. Torres has an average exit velocity of 85.3 mph. That puts him in the league's fourth percentile as only four other qualifying players have produced a lower average exit velo entering play on Tuesday.

While Torres' chase rates have never been lower, and he's drawing his walks, he's rarely finding barrels (5.3 barrel %) and his xSLG (.390) is almost 100 points lower than it was in his mammoth 2018 campaign.  

Thames was confident that Torres can make the changes to explode in June and beyond. He can take all the swings in the world behind the scenes, but once he steps up to the plate, the shortstop has to trust his instincts and play the game.

"We just got to make sure that he stays within himself and get the pitches that he's supposed to hit and hit it hard," Thames said. "But he's got to make sure in the beginning, clear his head and go out and play baseball."

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