Gleyber Torres Is Rewarding The Tigers On A One-Year Contract

Every ballplayer looks forward to free agency, hoping for a huge multi-year deal. That didn’t come to pass for Gleyber Torres last offseason, who signed a one-year pact with the Detroit Tigers, but the contract of his dreams likely awaits him this winter.

Torres, a 28-year-old second baseman, has been one of the best players on a Detroit team that’s tied with the Los Angeles Dodgers for the best record in MLB at 52-32. He’s hitting .284/.388/.440 with a career-best 135 OPS+, indicating his offense has been 35% above the league average. He has already accumulated 2.2 WAR (Baseball-Reference version), and he just advanced to the second phase of All-Star voting.

This could be his third All-Star appearance, but his first since 2019. That hints at the roller coaster ride that was his first seven seasons with the New York Yankees. They acquired him as a minor leaguer from the Chicago Cubs in 2016 and he became a consensus top-ten overall prospect before his 2018 debut. He amassed 6.3 WAR and belted 62 home runs over his first two seasons, and looked to be on his way to superstar status.

A disappointing 2020 season could be written off due to the pandemic and some questionable preparation for the shortened season, but he followed it with the worst offensive output of his career, hitting .259/.331/.366 with a 93 OPS+ in 2021. He was better in 2022 and 2023, posting OPS+ marks of 113 and 118, but he still wasn’t back to his early-career level.

The 2024 season was his springboard into free agency, but he didn’t get a proper bounce. He batted .257/.330/.378 with a 101 OPS+, his lowest since 2021, and he led MLB second baseman in errors for the second year in a row.

Normally, a 28-year-old middle infielder and two-time All-Star would be one of the top players in his free agent class, but the circumstances of his up-and-down career and underwhelming 2024 season curtailed his market. He signed a one-year $15 million deal with the Tigers at the end of December.

Now, Torres is one of the best all-around second baseman in the game this season, and he’s doing it in an unexpected way. He has 42 walks and 39 strikeouts, making him one of only five qualified players in MLB with more of the former than the latter, along with Mookie Betts, Geraldo Perdomo, Juan Soto, and Kyle Tucker. As a result, his .388 on-base percentage is fifth in the American League.

When a player like Soto walks more than he strikes out, it’s not a surprise, but Torres never had that kind of plate discipline. With the Yankees, his walk rate fluctuated from 6.8% to 13.8% and his strikeout rate ranged from 14.6% to 25.2%. This season, he has a 13.7% walk rate and a 12.7% strikeout rate. Very few players see their walk and strikeout rates vary so much year-to-year, which speaks to the tumultuous nature of his career to date.

Barring a second half collapse, Gleyber Torres isn’t going to settle for another one-year deal when he hits free agency this offseason. A long-term contract awaits him, likely with a nine-figure guarantee. That’s the deal he always strived for—he just had to wait an extra year to get it.