Yankees Infielder Could Finally Break Into Stardom This Season
The New York Yankees have no shortage of star players in 2024, with four of them making the most recent Top 100 players in baseball list from ESPN and three of them in the Top 10.
As the Top 100 players list celebrated the current stars of the Yankees, ESPN also looked to see who might be up next.
They listed each team's most likely player to break out next year. For New York, they chose someone that has been hovering around the top players list for a while.
Gleyber Torres has been good for a few years now, making two All-Star teams in 2018 and 2019.
He has not broken into that Top 100 list, however.
The 27-year-old is coming off of his best season since those first two years and could be on the verge of becoming one of baseball's best.
One thing that has helped him regain some of the steam that he had early in his career is picking up the power once again.
Torres hit 38 home runs in 2019 but only hit 12 in just under 190 games over the next two seasons after that. He's back to where he was as a rookie, averaging around 24 home runs in the last two seasons.
He's a better fielder than he was to start his career, but could still improve in that area. One thing he has greatly improved is his strikeout-to-walk ratio, with both a career-high in walks in 2023 and career-low in strikeouts (not counting 2020).
If Torres doesn't break out into stardom next year, the likely young candidates to make the list next would be either Jasson Dominguez, Austin Wells or Spencer Jones.
All three are in the top five prospects of the Yankees' farm system and are expected to become MLB regulars soon.
