Pinstripe Preview: Ronald Torreyes
After bouncing around in trades from many teams
beginning in 2015, Ronald Torreyes, nicknamed “Toe” by Joe Girardi, seems to
have found a home as a solid bench bat and utility man for the Yankees. Here’s
a list of the trades:
May 2015: Purchased by the Blue Jays from the Astros
June 2015: Purchased by the Dodgers from the
Blue Jays
January 2016: Traded from the Dodgers to the
Yankees in exchange for Rob Segedin
January 2016 (2 weeks later): Claimed on waivers
by the Angels from the Yankees
February 2016 (6 days later): Claimed on waivers
by the Yankees from the Angels
Not gonna lie, that must have sucked. However,
after making the Opening Day team, Torreyes (somehow) survived the entire
regular season on the Yankees’ 25-man roster, and made himself known as a very
useful player.
Torreyes made himself known, bursting onto the
scene with a triple in his first Yankees at-bat. (He actually finished third on
the Yanks in triples with four, behind Brett Gardner (six), and Jacoby Ellsbury (five), in just 155
at-bats). He continued to go on a tear whenever at the plate for a good amount
of April, and owned a .313 batting average on May 9. However, he cooled off
after that, going 3-16 (.188) for the rest of May. He was kind of forgotten about
for most of the summer, getting only 11 (!!) at-bats in June, and only 14 (!!!)
in July. That’s…. not good. I’m not too sure how he managed to survive on the
roster the whole year, but he did, which was mostly thanks to a torrid streak
he had at the end of August, going 12-23 (.522) from
August 19-28, along with his first major league home run was a great stretch for Torreyes in his rookie season. I love attaching videos to articles like this, so here is that bomb:
August 19-28, along with his first major league home run was a great stretch for Torreyes in his rookie season. I love attaching videos to articles like this, so here is that bomb:
For such a small guy, that was no wall scraper. Overall, 2016 was a decent season from Torreyes. He’s a fun little player who can play third, short, second, and even the outfield in a pinch, all while being able to handle a bat, and someone like that deserves a spot on a Major League team.
2017 Preview
Torreyes should open the season as part of the
Yankees bench, and will continue to get the semi-regular amount of playing time
he did last year. I expect the bulk of his playing time to be at third, as it
was last year, in order to give Chase Headley some rest. Didi Gregorius and
Starlin Castro could probably use an occasional off day as well, and Torreyes
provides them with that. However, I’m not so sure that he will survive the
entire season on the 25-man roster. 2017 is going to be a season of seeing what the
kids have, and that includes kids down at Triple-A and lower who haven’t been added to
the 40-man roster, such as Chance Adams, James Kaprielian, Jordan Montgomery,
Clint Frazier, Tyler Wade, and maybe even Dustin Fowler or Gleyber Torres. Who
knows? Maybe others will be knocked off the roster. But I wouldn’t be surprised
if Torreyes is on the chopping block come midseason. Until then, though, I
expect him to bring the same bat skills and solid defense that allowed him to
last through 2016.
Article by: Alex Weir
Comments
Post a Comment