Brian Cashman Spoke Candidly And Confirmed That Gleyber Torres (The Worst Defensive 2nd Baseman In Baseball) Refused To Move Positions After The Team Traded For Jazz Chisholm Jr. Last Year
Been a little too quiet with Yankees news so far in 2025, but last night we got some interesting tea. Brian Cashman was on the YES Network giving an interview on the state of the offseason and how the upcoming year is going to shape out. Within that interview he seemingly called out Gleyber Torres when it came to potentially moving positions in the 2nd half off the season. Let's discuss.
The Yankees seemingly have one position left to fill, and that would be 3rd base. You may wonder why 3rd considering the fact that Jazz Chisholm Jr. was playing that primarily since he came over from Miami. Well, it turns out Gleyber Torres outright refused to move positions after the trade went through. Jazz was acquired to play 2nd base and sure up the defense there, but ended up having to learn a whole new position at 3rd to avoid a clubhouse meltdown. Shout out to him for just taking on a whole new position like that and never complaining once. While he wasn't the best defender in the world over there, he definitely made some nice plays that you didn't expect, one coming in the World Series to keep a runner at 3rd.
Here was Cashman's full quote on Gleyber's refusal. Hate the Yankees GM all you want, but he's always brutally honest about this kind of shit and let's you know exactly what went down. Boone, on the other hand, can't help himself from lying and deceiving the fans to protect his own guys.
This isn't the most breaking news ever since Gleyber has been pretty vocal about his distaste for playing 3rd. He said he's a second baseman last year and even refused an offer from the Nats because they wanted him to play over there.
Gleyber, now on the Tigers, tweeted quick before deleting last night.
Tough to say this when you were the guy who refused to be a team player after playing the worst defense at your position all season long. 30 out of 30. The worst. And keep in mind second base was not his original position either, having switched from short after that disaster to start his big league career. He really has no ground to stand on here so I don't get the tweet at all.
I think it's best for all parties involved that Gleyber is elsewhere and the Yankees are moving on. There were times when Judge was hurt in the past where Gleyber was the most consistent hitter on the team. When the team was dying for a lead off guy last season he stepped up in the 2nd half and delivered into the postseason. Dude truly loved being a Yankee and wanted to win here desperately. Unfortunately his lows were LOW. The defense was almost always a problem with lazy plays happening way too often. Boone would discard any notion that it was a problem because he's a player's manager and will blindly stick up for his guys. We aren't that dumb though like they think we are. The defense was a noticeable PROBLEM. Baserunning was a nightmare as well. None of it really got any better as time went on, in fact it just got worse. It was best to move on.
The Yankees made a conscious decision this offseason to focus on improving both defense and base running while they retooled the roster. That meant not considering bringing Gleyber back, who was a free agent. He ended up signing for pennies on the dollar with the Tigers and with that closed the book on the Gleyber era in New York. The frustrating part is that currently the Yankees are looking at the corpse of DJ LeMahieu (a guy they were going to DFA in the 2nd half of the season before Judge stepped in), Oswaldo Cabrera, and Oswald Peraza to be their 3rd baseman. That's unserious. You can't tell me your number one goal is to win a World Series when that's what you're going with to start the season. While Alex Bregman is not a consideration with his price tag, Nolan Arenado is still out there and despite a ton of red flags. He's way better than those current options I listed a few sentences above. Either way it's more than likely going to be a weak position for the team going into 2025. If they stick with their current guys (yuck) it'll almost certainly be a priority to address at the deadline, even though they'll tell us in Spring that DJ looks great. This team will never cease to frustrate the fuck out of me. Just chalk up my undying devotion to them to my laundry list of bad life decisions.
P.S. Jazz had some "baggage" coming over from Miami that reportedly scared a lot of teams off when it came to his clubhouse behavior. I've seen nothing but the opposite with him in New York. Exact kind of personality and demeanor you want on the team. Glad he's here and I hope he has a big season now that he's settled in and back at a position he's comfortable with.
P.PS. Boone is such a pushover it's pathetic