The prize of last August Arodis Chapman trade with the cubs and star of the Arizona Fall League has been getting a lot of accolades over the past few months for New York Yankees.
That prize being nineteen year old shortstop Gleyber Torres, who was named the MVP of the 2016 Arizona Fall League despite being the second-youngest player participating.
The club’s newest phenom hit .403/.513/.645 with three home runs and four stolen bases in 76 plate appearances, despite facing upper-minors competition for the first time and seeing his first extended professional action at second base.
According to an assistant to a National League General Manager, Torres has some of the same qualities that Derek Jeter at a young age.
“He’s got that aura about him. That big league aura. It’s like a confidence you see in very talented players and he’s got it. You never want to compare a shortstop in the Yankees organization to Derek Jeter, but Jeter had that ‘it’ about him at a young age as well.”
The Jeter comparison is never a fair one to make one discussing a young Yankees shortstop. That’s too much pressure to put on anyone’s shoulders.
At the same time, you can make the case that Torres is actually a better prospect than Jeter was back in the day, with more power and better defense.
It’s been a while since the Yankees have had a clear, no-doubt superstar in their system.
While there have been quite a number of misses (Kevin Mass, Ed Yarnall, Hideki Irabu, Ricky Ledee), the Yankees have put out more than a few prospects that have become stars over the years.
You have to go back to the “Core Four” (Jorge Posada’s, Andy Pettittes, Bernie Williams, Derek Jeter) being the most recent to have made a major impact for the Yankees.
The New “Baby Bombers” such as Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez have had serious questions about their game, whereas Torres seems to get nothing but love from evaluators.
Jeter turned it into over 3,000 hits and one of the best careers any shortstop has ever had. Torres, after hitting .403 with a .513 OBP and 1.158 OPS in the Arizona Fall League, is on his way to making a mark in pinstripes within the next few years.
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