The Yankees announced devastating news regarding their top prospect, Gleyber Torres, as the highly touted young infielder has been diagnosed with a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his left (non-throwing) elbow and will require Tommy John surgery. Torres will miss the remainder of the 2017 season, though the Yankees note that they expect him to be ready for Spring Training 2018. (Recovery from Tommy John is typically shorter for position players than it is for pitchers.)
The diagnosis is crushing for the Yankees, who undoubtedly hoped to bring their prized infield prospect to the Majors at some point this summer. The 20-year-old Torres, acquired from the Cubs in last summer’s Aroldis Chapman blockbuster, opened the season in Double-A but had recently been promoted to Triple-A following a strong start to the year. A natural shortstop, Torres had been shifted over to third base, likely in order to prepare him for a summer promotion that would displace struggling veteran Chase Headley.
Torres reportedly suffered the injury while sliding into home plate over the weekend, and while he’d already been placed on the minor league disabled list, certainly this type of diagnosis was not what the Yankees or anyone else was anticipating.
Through a combined 235 plate appearances with the Yankees’ Double-A and Triple-A affiliates, Torres was batting .287/.383/.480 with seven homers, 14 doubles, two triples and seven stolen bases despite being one of the youngest players in the Double-A Eastern League and in the Triple-A International League.
If the Yankees do still decide they’d like an upgrade over Headley, who is hitting .244/.329/.364 on the season, the trade market should bear a number of hot-corner alternatives. White Sox third baseman Todd Frazier will be among the most readily available options at third base, and it’s also likely that the Giants will field offers for Eduardo Nunez. Mike Moustakas stands out as another rental option, though the Royals’ recently improved play will likely put a hold on any thoughts Kansas City might’ve had about trading veterans. Both Oakland’s Jed Lowrie and San Diego’s Yangervis Solarte (a former Yankee) should be available in trade talks as well, though each has played more second than third lately.
And it should, of course, be noted that Headley has performed better at the plate recently. While he’s still not showing much pop, he’s posted a .284/.395/.358 batting line over his past 81 PAs dating back to late May. While that’s not elite production, the gaudy OBP would compensate for a lack of power if Headley were able to sustain something close to that pace.
Well, I can’t say I was expecting this
Theeeeeeeee Yankees win
Congrats on a truly well thought out and meaningless dig..10 fold MF!
let’s go
Ha! Yes!!!!
Welp…time to kill myself.
not cool
Boo hoo! Woe is you and the Yankees this year……….
Wow
Not often that a position player has Tommy John on non-throwing arm. Zack Cozart is the last case I remember.
Roman Quinn, but I think he opted for stem cell treatment instead
Cozart is the only other one that I can think of as well.
Kyle Blanks
Blanks’ Tommy John came in his throwing elbow.
Christian Vasquez
Once again, throwing arm.
Miguel Sano
Throwing arm.
Why do people keep naming off position players who had TJ on their throwing arm? The OP clearly said “position players and their non-throwing arm”.
Didn’t Matt Wieters?
Yes
Weiters’s TJ was on his throwing arm.
I think Miguel Sano’s Tommy John surgery was on his non-throwing arm.
So much for him taking over third base this year…
Damnnnnn, that hurts. Headley is struggling and now it looks as off they’ll be forced to look for outside help if they expect to continue contending
So how long till Cashman calls teams like KC(Moustakas) and CHW(Frazier) looking for a third basemen? No way they stick with Headley all year especially now that Torres is done for the year.
When they have leverage and the market opens up
Won’t be Frazier..come on man! The Royals are trying for a last run.
Frazier is on the White Sox
Answering on Moose.
*also
You said “won’t be Frazier. Royals are making a run.” Probably should’ve said “won’t be moose. Royals are making a run.”
You’re right.
Miguel Andujar.
Yep, or Wade.
He’s in double a. No way he comes up this year.
Correa did, he was a top prospect but its possible. Also Cordoba from padres is playing in the Show after never playing above A ball
Andujar was called up tp AAA today, so if he hits like he did in AA he should be an option in a month or so I’d imagine.
Cordoba is up because he’s a rule 5 pick and the Padres have the roster space and want to keep him.
Bring up Andujar in late August. He’ll supplant Headley before October
Headley has been better than Frazier so that’s not happening.
Sure, except that he hasn’t been…
They’ve arguably been equally as bad. .7 WAR vs. .6.
Frazier missed most of Spring Training and a week due to the flu early on. Dude’s been hitting since beginning of May about.
Much more accurate statement. Although Frazier has been significantly better since a miserable start to the year (which can at least partially be attributed to being extremely sick and losing around 20 pounds, if I’m not mistaken).
He still really looks like he lost a ton of weight.
Phils send Franco, Neshek and a couple of prospects not subject to Rule 5 this year for Headley, Miguel Andujar and some other prospects the Yanks would otherwise lose in Rule 5.
Prospects not worth protecting aren’t worth much to other teams.
Generally, unprotected prospects wouldn’t be seen as valuable. Yankees, who had 4 guys selected in the ’16 Rule 5, area different case. It’s a deep system. Yanks have started to pare (Barbato to Pirates) down their list of potential casualties. But they still have Mateo, Fowler, Wade, Torres, Frazier, Estrada, McKinney, Abreu, Acevedo,Littell, Clarkin, Feyereisen, Webb, C. Smith, T. Jones and others. If the Yanks don’t solve 3B internally or do want to unload the Headley contact, then these teams match up well for a trade.
Cosart is a better option!
Well chase, youre safe for another 3-4 months. I guess i dont mind a platoon w torreyes and ref and headley at 3b, but wouldve been nice to give torres a year under his belt before becoming a full time starter.
How can you put Refsnyder in any scenario..guy is garbage!
Trade for Howie Kendrick!!! The guy is a new man I tell you. Just give us a decent prospect or a reliever please. Also you guys can take Maikel Franco too. Just add in a nice new bat.
Don’t sound so desperate
This sucks. Now I wonder if the Yankees trade for a 3B. There were rumors if Headley continued to struggle (though he was one of their few bright spots on the west coast trip) and Torres continued to hit in ST, the Yankee may have called him up. There goes those plans.
I’m sure they would love to have solarte back and he is cheap
having a minor league prospect in triple-a doesn’t change the yankees trading plans sorry to break the news
it actually does. If you have a top prospect who can play a position of need during this year you wouldn’t trade for someone. To say his injury doesn’t change plans is wrong
The Yankees are years too early anyways. Remember the Phillies had a good start last year, and look at them now.
Not the same,not even close!
Yankees do have some stars but look at Luis Severino to break down at some point. Remember the Yanks have had no starting pitching injuries. It is bound to happen soon
Sabathia???
Just like how the Cubs were ahead of schedule 2 years ago… Seems to have worked out for them.
Well, that sucks.
Terrible news. Hopefully he comes back in 2019 and picks up where he left off.
You mean 2018
TJS for position players is different. He’ll be back next spring.
It’s a good thing that he plays for the right NY team, which got an immediate diagnosis and made the correct moves. As opposed to “eventually’s” flushing friends that would have tried to hide from the truth and come up with ways of prolonging things into a multiple year drama.
In my opinion he could STILL ale over for Headly this year !!!! Lol
Tough break for the Yankees.
Ha!
Could definitely see them swinging a trade at the deadline the way Headly has been struggling. Nunez, solarte, and prado come to mind…
So is it ironic that you mentioned all former Yankees?
That’s not irony
Another reason not to slide head first
Did he really slide in head first at home plate? That’s always a horrible idea with all the gear the catcher has on.
You’ve watched baseball before, right? Everyone slides head first into every base unless they’re trying to break up the DP at second.
Never have watched a game in my life.
I have no issue with players sliding head first into second or third. What I do have an issue with is players sliding/diving into first base (unless it’s to avoid a tag after a bad throw) or sliding head first into home plate. Those are just stupid plays. One, sliding into first is slower than just running through the base. Two, going head first into home is just asking for an injury. Generally it’s not as bad as what happened to Torres, but hand/finger issues are very common going head first into home.
Sliding into first base is a dumb play, sure, but Kiermeier was trying to avoid running into a huge human being.
Yeah, sliding feet first into home is never a bad idea…just ask Robin Ventura.
Jeez, just stop with this stuff. Everybody slides head first, People get hurt in professional sports doing everything; heck, just a week ago Kevin Keirmeier broke his hip sliding feet-first trying to avoid a collision.
Rickey Henderson slid head-first into any base his whole career, which spanned 25 seasons, 1700 stolen base attempts, 2200 runs scored…you get the picture. He never got hurt on a slide.
Kenny Lofton did sliding headfirst into first base at Fenway, one of the most gruesome sports injuries I’ve ever seen
You should ask yourself how many times Lofton slid headfirst and didn’t gruesomely injure himself
I watched schwarber slide head first the other night at home and I cringed. Cub fan wishing Torres a speedy recovery. Tough injury when it’s a meaningless minor league game and he could have helped major league club this year.
Wouldn’t have happened if he were up in the bigs when he should’ve been weeks ago.
The Mets better bring up there short stop before he gets hurt
Am I the only one that thinks Solarte isn’t going anywhere? BOS and NYY both look primed for pure rentals (expensive veteran under contract next year, top prospect that should be starting by the end of 2018, long term incumbent at 2B – why pay the price premium for 3 years of cheap control when you only need 3 months?) and LAA has no prospects and look more likely to sell than buy. Outside those 3, what contender needs a 2B/3B? No one…
If the Padres don’t trade Solarte then it’s a massive fail. He has exactly zero value to a rebuilding team, he’s dirt-cheap, there are contenders that could use middle infielder/utility guys, and I doubt SD is asking a ton for him, given his lack of defensive or baserunning value.
Solarte will have just as much value, if not more, at the Winter Meetings when ~28 teams are looking for upgrades, instead of at the deadline, when there’s only about a dozen. Beyond that, it takes two to trade, and, simply put, there is almost no market for 2B/3B outside the 3 teams I mentioned. Trading Solarte for pennies on the dollar would be the massive fail, and that’s the only way he’d be moved right now. Wait until the Winter, or better yet, until next deadline (when Luis Urias should be ready to take over at 2B anyways). If i’m AJ, i’m using the Prado-Evoldi deal as a comp, as they’re very similar hitters (108 OPS+ for Prado, 107 for Solarte), they have about the same amount of control, and while Prado plays better D, he was substantially more expensive.
Now is the time to buck up a trade. Judge, Ellsbury, and Gardner in the OF and Fowler and Rutherford coming up means Frazier can be expendable. Gerrit Cole can be the ace we need and David Freese can play 1B and 3B – both holes for the Yankees. Here’s a trade idea: (I’m a Yankees fan but I realize the Yankees will have to overpay.
Yankees get: RHP Gerrit Cole and 3B David Freese
Pirates get: OF Clint Frazier, RHP Domingo Acevedo, OF Blake Rutherford, RHP Albert Abreu, INF Nick Solak, and LHP Tyler Webb
I would love this. Only because it’s such a bad trade for the Yankees.
It is, but it’s reasonable. You have to pay to get established players. The trade market is inflated right now, and everyone is paying the sky to get what they want
only thing is cashman has shown he won’t over pay. and that is an extreme over pay
Is this really a suggestion for a 6-for-2 trade for an underperforming starter and a league average third baseman? I doubt that’s happening. I mean, the Yanks are doing fine with Headley; he’ll probably end up with his standard 250/320/400 line and decent defense and that’s enough for a team with plenty of offense. The starting pitching depth is the real weakness of the team and that’s where the Yankees’ efforts to upgrade should start.
Freese can play 1B though too. He’d be a major upgrade if Bird doesn’t get his act together this year. Might be better to let him spend this year in the minors when he’s finally healthy. Also Cole will get back to his old self, or close to it, and he comes with 2.5 years of control.
Despite the underperforming this year (even worse than Quintana’s, based on his FIP), the biggest problem I’d have with giving up a ton for Cole is that he has only finished 1 “full” season in his 5 year career… Outside of 2015, which was an excellent season, his highest amount of starts in a season has been 22, which came with an inning total of 138.0.
The only way I’m trading a ton for someone who has been that unreliable health-wise is if they have been absolutely lights out when healthy, which outside of that one Cy Young caliber year, he really hasn’t been. To me, outside of that year, he belongs in the conversation with back end #1’s/high end #2’s, not in the Ace conversation. With the health questions, that’s not good enough for me to give up a ton prospect-wise. If he either 1) didn’t have the health questions and performed this same way or 2) had the health issues but performed like a true Ace for more than 1 season, I wouldn’t have any issues giving up multiple top prospects for him, but that isn’t the case.
Sox and Yanks are going to end up in a dog fight for a 3B replacement now.. I could see the Yanks going hard at Frazier, where the Sox could make a big push for Moustakas. Sox desperately need to get better at third, but they’re also very righty heavy and could use a lefty thumper to balance the lineup too. We’ll see. Going to be an interesting revival of the Sox/Yanks rivalry this year down the stretch. Why not start at the deadline!
No way the Yankees get Frazier. Headley has been better than him this year
Exactly!
Bad news indeed, but remember he’s 20 and certainly has the time to heal and begin his progression towards the bigs for the yanks again next year.
As far as making trades, I guess everyone, including me, got caught up in all the hype with them being in first and forgot this team wasn’t really supposed to challenge until next year or the year after, setting up a young team full of talent ready for a good run.
Don’t panic and take on somebody else’s yesterday by trading for Frazier, Moose will be very expensive (too many prospects) especially with KC playing better ball. Just stay the course, and try to solve 1st base and let the 3rd platoon take care of things.
Just my thoughts. Don’t want to see us get fleeced by doing another 3 for 1 trade ( regardless of who it is) for a rental. Teams with a plan, stay the course they believe lead them to success.
And there is another Yankee top prospect injury… What’s new
The stars are aligned
Yawnnnn
A position player getting TJS on the non throwing hand and still out for a year? If this wasn’t a prospect they could probably come back in the same season
Have you ever read about Tommy John surgery? It’s an intense recovery process. Players describe it as “having to relearn how to use their arms.” If you were a secretary in an office you would be out for an extended period if you’d had ligament replacement surgery.
Sure but i dont really see why he would have the surgery in the first place. It seems like a drastic option especially for a non throwing hand
Even if it’s your “non-throwing hand” you still need to be able to bend your elbow when batting and fielding. A torn UCL makes it almost impossible to do that.
Would the yanks or sox look at zack cosart?
He can play there, would be a rental but is having an all star year and would be great to see him playing for a playoff team…
Have to see when he comes off the DL
I’d still take Torres back in a Gerrit Cole deal. We can wait out that TJ.
especially in his non-throwing hand
You’d get Frazier, not Torres.
Lol!!
More Chapman Karma!
It’s his non-throwing arm. He’ll be fine. Even if he isn’t, we had no need for Chapman the second half of last year, so it doesn’t make a difference. Just the fact that the Cubs don’t have him.
Although this is very disappointing and Yankee news doesn’t seem to be positive lately, they did promote andujar which is nice. And I’m not sure why refsnyder is on the big league roster over Tyler wade. Doesn’t seem like there is much more for him to prove in the minors and you would be able to get him more at bats as he can play anywhere in the outfield and 3 spots in the infield. I think it’s time to trade ref for whatever you can get to open that 40 man spot.
Yankees fans have always wildly overvalued Refsnyder; it’s interesting that now they’re finally seeing the light. He’s a utility player; can’t field, can’t really hit, not a great baserunner. He’s a DFA guy; I doubt any team gives up anything of value for him at all.
My point exactly like at this point I’d take cash or a player to be named later just to free his spot up.
Another big injury to a Met? OMG, the Mets are cursed….oh wait never mind, it is the other NY team. Sorry Mets fans, talent wise, the team is average with or without injuries.
This might be the worst troll job I’ve ever seen. You’re going to have to up your game if you’re going to hang with the trolls on this site.
Too bad, was looking forward to seeing this guy play in the bigs. The kid must be frustrated.
And the head first slide gets banned in 2018
… not a fan of the head first slide. Were I a manager, I’d outlaw such slides on my team.
Frazier needs to be traded so we can see Moncada since Torres is gone. I like to see a top prospect play sometime this summer as I have (had) both players on my fantasy team
Yankees could use another starter , 3rd baseman and maybe 1st baseman. Giants should try and offer cueto, nunez and belt to Yankees for at least 2 good prospects.
Thanks but no thanks..
Nunez….been there done that
Belt….a .221 hitting first baseman, we’ve pretty much got that now, and certainly can bring up somebody from the farm that can do that to.
Cueto…might be interesting! but not enough to clear “at least 2 good prospects”.
Too much garbage in this offering.
There not garbage, Nunez could help some pop, speed, belt i feel would love that short porch you call right field and cueto can be dominant at times so yes couple good prospects would be fair. Did not say there top prospect but good ones
I think Nunez could work in a Yankees trade, maybe Cueto? Belt is doing awfully right now and isn’t worth much
The Yankees have a 3B in the minors that they could call up. Miguel Andujar at AA looks like he’s performing well.
Give Andujar a shot…the guy rakes and won’t hurt on the defensive side either.
Theo is so smart.
Unless they get Mokstakas he will be the 3B next season this take all the pressure off Torres unless they trade him to the to Chicago/White Sox even the Cubs –we want you back.