Two weeks ago, the Boston Red Sox set the trade market when they sent Anderson Espinoza, an elite pitching prospect who has received legitimate comps to Pedro Martinez, to the Padres for Drew Pomeranz, who you might remember, was traded to the Padres for Yonder Alonso eight months ago. Today, Theo Epstein paid up to the market price in order to acquire two months of Aroldis Chapman. The unbelievable haul features a High-A prospect named Gleyber Torres. If you are a fan of the Yankees or Cubs, or just a baseball enthusiast in general, you might be wondering just what is so special about a guy who is batting just .275 with nine homers.
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Torres’ defense will force position moves in the Yankees’ system
Torres is a big-bodied shortstop, and those types of prospects typically undergo a position change to either third base or left field as they fill out. Torres is not your typical big-bodied shortstop, however. The scouting reports suggest his defensive prowess is strong enough that not only will he hold onto the position, but he will force the Yankees to move Starlin Castro to third base and the Yankees’ former top-prospect, Jorge Mateo to make a transition to center field. What this means for fantasy owners, is that he will be competing against the likes of Brandon Crawford and Brad Miller for fantasy relevance rather than players like Joc Pederson and Nick Castellanos
Myrtle Beach is not a strong offensive environment
Currently, Torres plays half of his games at TicketReturn.Com Field in Myrtle Beach, which is not conducive to padded offensive statistics. In fact, Baseball America graded the park in the 32nd percentile among all minor league ballparks for runs scored. What’s more, is that the Carolina League as a whole, is a much weaker offensive league than the California (High-A) League, which places 7 of it’s 10 ballparks above the 85th percentile, so be careful comparing High-A numbers across leagues because players like Travis Demeritte post gaudy numbers, but are proven to be a fluke once they receive a promotion. Gleyber’s stats will only improve with his promotions.
Torres is the youngest player in all of High-A
At 19 years old, Gleyber is the youngest player in High-A and 3.5 years younger than the average high-A player. If he were playing in a league with players his own age, Torres could be sitting at the top of minor league leaderboards, like Red Sox’ top prospect, Yoan Moncada, who gained so much attention for his excellent performance this season as a 21-year-old in Torres’ High-A Carolina League. Moncada, who at 6’2″, 205 pounds, has already filled into his body, carried a .189 ISO and 21.1 K% before his promotion to Double-A. Torres, meanwhile, is just 6’1″, 175 pounds, but has a similar .157 ISO with a 21.3% K%. At the rate Torres is swatting doubles, it seems more than likely that at age 21, his doubles would become homers and his ISO would far surpass what Moncada was able to accomplish at the same age and level on his way to being regarded the top hitting prospect in baseball.
What is in store for Torres’ future?
At the start of the season, I projected out the top 150 prospects for 2017 in order to display how I expected the rankings to morph over the course of the 2016 season. This list has accurately forecasted Alex Reyes to jump into the top five, Victor Robles to soar 30+ spots into the top ten, and many other successes from Austin Meadows to Triston McKenzie, Josh Hader, Stephen Gonsalves, and even a 300+ spot leap for Thomas Szapucki. I projected Gleybar to be No. 9 heading into next spring, and I see him eventually nestling into a top-five ranking by the time he is called up in the summer of 2018. His ceiling, believe it or not, is similar to that of Derek Jeter, although reaching a ceiling isn’t a common occurrence. His mold, however, would see him more as today’s version of Barry Larkin, so less stolen bases, and more strikeouts/homers. His floor–well, plenty of top prospects suffer injuries or never progress towards their untapped potential, so it is quite possible he turns into Brandon Wood or Russ Adams, but even with that risk, which is present with any High-A prospect, the mere chance of owning .295 hitting shortstop with 25 homers and 25 stolen bases, is clearly worth an investment in dynasty leagues.