What Would It Take for the Padres to Acquire Gleyber Torres?
Credit: AP Photo
The hole at the shortstop position for the San Diego Padres is larger than the Grand Canyon itself. Well, at least it certainly feels that way if you have rooted for this franchise in recent memory.
For seemingly ever, the Padres have lacked any consistency at one of the most vital positions in all of baseball.
Guys like Alexei Ramirez, Alexi Amarista, Clint Barmes, and Erick Aybar have manned short for the team in recent years. Each veteran provided only average, at best, production for the Friars. Before them, things were not much better. Though Khalil Greene and Everth Cabrera had short-term success, neither were able to maintain their play for any longevity.
In recent years the team has signed, traded for, and drafted many young shortstops. Fernando Tatis, Luis Urias, Gabriel Arias, Jordy Barley, Luis Almanzar, Jarryd Dale, Justin Lopez, and Kelvin Melean provide a future, but none are really close to major league service time. The two that are nearest (Urias and Tatis) have question marks about their ability to play the position for the long-term, so the Padres still need help.
Enter the New York Yankees. Yes, the Evil Empire. Or at least that is what they used to be called.
They currently have the overall #1 prospect in all of baseball, and he happens to be a shortstop. Gleyber Torres was acquired for Aroldis Champman from the Cubs at the 2016 trade deadline. That was an awesome return for the Yankees, but they have no need for a shortstop presently. Didi Gregorius has come into his own as the heir apparent to Derek Jeter. Gregorious is not going anywhere. In fact, there is talk of a long-term extension with him that will probably take place at some moment in the near future.
With Gregorius an established young star, Gleyber Torres was moved to second and third this season in the minors. He suffered an elbow injury to his non-throwing elbow and underwent Tommy John surgery in June. He vows to return at one point in the upcoming season, but it remains to be seen if he can return to form right away. The slide at home which damaged his elbow was a freak occurrence and he is supposed to be able to return with no issues.
The Yankees are a team on the rise.
They were mere outs away from returning to the World Series in a year that they were supposed to be still building and cultivating talent. Players like Gary Sanchez and Aaron Judge provide the fans with homegrown talent they can build around for years. On top of the burgeoning farm system, the team with endless amounts of money will soon have cash to spend. They are poised to be good for a long time, and that is a scary thought for a Padres team that is building momentum. Dealing Torres, who is deemed a “can’t miss” type of prospect is risky, but the Yankees have a history of pulling the trigger on a deal when the time is right.
The Yankees are strong, but they do have needs.
Let’s explore.
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James was born and raised in America’s Finest City. He is a passionate baseball fan with even more passion towards his hometown Padres. Editor-In-Chief of EastVillageTimes.com. Always striving to bring you the highest quality in San Diego Sports News. Original content, with original ideas, that’s our motto. Enjoy.
I like that everyone is excited about all these “prospects” but they are just that, prospects. There’s no guarantee a single one has a decent MLB career. We hope for the best but fact is, and Preller has said it too, most of these guys don’t work out. I like the idea of Torres but it was pretty evident that the Yankees want nothing to do in parting with him, so, keeping that in mind, let’s get off that train of thought.
At this point, assuming a few of these major prospects of ours are going to come up and hopefully develop in the next few years, I would hope the club is turning its attention towards adding longer term and solid veteran players- not just to support the prospects, but the guys who are here. Look at Wil for example- I love him in a Padre uniform, but he has no business being placed in the “face of the franchise” role. He needs help around him in the order and is regressing at the plate because he is trying to be “the man”. Adding Torres doesn’t help Wil, this coming year or the one after. Wil needs the help. And that doesn’t mean Austin or Hunter batting .220 because they can’t stop swinging for the fences. We need disciplined, professional major leaguers to set an example. We haven’t had that since Adrian was shown the door. That’s too long.
Continuing to build the system with prospects, yes. But now it’s time to build a major league team and focus on a core who will carry it- a core that is one worth watching and one that is competitive. We are essentially “prospects” as a MLB club and while it’s great what the Cubs and Stros did, there is no guarantee for us. Let’s hope a few of our guys become bona fide MLB players- in the meantime, how about some stability and competitive bats and arms who will get us to .500 this year? For some reason, since the start of this place called Petco, we’ve not been given a single one who’s stayed on board.
I don’t think Torres is any longer the top prospect in baseball, while still a top 5 guy, he would be a great get for the Padres. Brad Hand being a top 5 left handed reliever would be a great get for the Yankees. I agree the parameters are there for a deal. but I do not see how it would take more than taking all of Ellbury’s contract to make this deal happen? Torres and Ellsbury for Hand and $68.5M sounds pretty fair to me and I am not trying to be a homer. Getting Hand will make the Yankees bullpen the best in all of baseball and also help them get below the luxury tax threshold for the free agent class of 2018 in which they are said to be going all out for the top free agents. This is not the time for the Padres to start dealing away their top prospects, maybe including a 11-15 guy, but their #3 or 4 prospect, I just don’t like it. That being said, nice article James.
Why would you be willing to take ONE FRICKIN DOLLAR of Elsbury contract, he is a DH in New York. I don’t want the guy at all. At some point we need to get like 30 prospects into 15 slots on our 40 man roster. Our lack of LH corner options is huge and instead of fixing that need we are still stuck on a SS for the future. Tatis Jr. is looking more by the day like he is going to be a 3B.
Why do we take on big contracts on other teams TRASH but won’t sign good ML players in their prime if we have money to spend.
Which MLB free agent are you planning on spending big money on this year? There isn’t one “big name free agent” this year that I would want the Padres to sign, except for Hosmer who is still young enopugh to contribute in 2020 when the team should be good enough to contend. How ’bout next year. Harper? Machado? Good luck, over $300M(or a lot more) for either, that won’t fit into the Padres budget. The Padres have to play with the payroll this way, how do you think they got Tatis? By eating a ton of money on Shields’ contract. If they could eat $68M to get a starting SS for years to come, why would you not do that? You yourself say that Tatis is looking like a 3rd baseman. That hole at short, since Greene, isn’t filling itself. And you never know, Ellsbury could have a decent 1st half of the season and they could get a good prospect for him if they keep the contract.
Yes but we were trying to DUMP Shields. We need to DUMP Meyers if we dump anybody. That is why we need to do some real scouting of other teams assets and trade our prospects for theirs. You can’t take on other teams garbage and the money to get a prospect who may or may not pan out.
Our SS is playing for the NATS. if SS is such a significant position, why did Preller trade Turner.
How are you going to evaluate all of our prospects and end up with ones to protect with spots on our 40 man roster without losing someone. We need to hype some of these guys up and do some 2 or 3 for ones to get what else we need.
@Don TT clearly wasn’t preller guy.. ever since he traded TT he’s been linked to almost every shortstop.. I think Myers needs to move to left field and sign hosmer/ bring up big Naylor.. I believe preller is on right track Coach up the million and a half prospects he signed/ acquired and then he gets to pick the cream of the crop then package the left overs. Interesting time to be a daddy’s fan!!!
Hey Dustin, while I don’t think the Yankees are going to part with Torres under any decent circumstance and Ellsbury isn’t really a fit as he stands right now, I think you might be on the right track- it probably will be a creative trade that gets us a veteran or two that we need right now. If Ellsbury didn’t have the financial commitment (or where he’s at career-wise) he’d probably be a good fit.Maybe the Hosmer rumors are decent to wonder about. Not sure if they’re gonna shell out that kind of money though.
Ellsbury I could see in some kind of swap maybe with Wil Myers in a bad contract-like swap.
If you want to throw him in there I could see it being Wil Myers, Brad Hand & Anderson Espinoza for Greg Bird, Jacoby Ellsbury, Gleybar Torres & some other prospect (maybe Billy McKinney).
But yeah it would be a Hand and likely Quantrill or Espinoza for Torres which could be excellent.
@Don TT clearly wasn’t preller guy.. ever since he traded TT he’s been linked to almost every shortstop.. I think Myers needs to move to left field and sign hosmer/ bring up big Naylor.. I believe preller is on right track Coach up the million and a half prospects he signed/ acquired and then he gets to pick the cream of the crop then package the left overs. Interesting time to be a daddy’s fan!!!
Yeah that would work but I don’t see the Yankers ever parting with Torres unless we literally give them the farm. Wil could do well there but in your trade, I’d almost see the Yankees asking for a 3 for 1 (Wil, Brad…. but I think more realistically, you’re looking at Quantrill or Urias for the 3rd man). Part of that is that Wil at this moment looks like a bad contract and they already have a couple of those. But, they hold all the cards in this case, they can just buy what doesn’t work out for them. The Pads dealing with them may not be the best move.
This article is good and entertaining but I don’t see on what planet we need to worry about Torres when we have some good potential coming and need to focus on building a better foundation of established ball players.
I would want NO PART of Jacoby Ellsbury. Why do we consider taking players who other teams want to dump on us that are not performing up to their cost, but we hold off on actually signing players that would be a strong fit long term.
But Brad Hand and Anderson Espinoza in a Two for One for Torres would be something I would consider strongly.
You could put Tatis at 3B and Urias at 2B along with Torres at SS. Your Infield would be set. Add 2 LH batters at 1B and LF and we would have a solid starting 8 in the field, with enough pitching on the way.
We need to move Meyers before his contract gets prohibitive.
Hey Don, I like what you have to say, I was just laughing to myself at the Meyers contract comment. I have really no idea what Preller was thinking. He could’ve inked Myers for a lot less. I’m not sure signing him for what he “might” do was a smart move. I love Wil on our team but that price was really odd. Kinda like what they threw at Gyorko a few years back.
Granted, different GM, different scenario but I’m seeing a Matt Kemp or James Shields scenario coming with Myers (except in most realistic cases, Wil doesn’t put up the numbers to merit that sort of money in any season).
Sorry, I really do like Wil, I just think AJ really didn’t need to throw that much money on “hope” or “face of the franchise”. Right now, Wil is a 10 mil a year player and he may not exceed that. In that idea, yeah, it might be smart to unload him if his value peaks. He’s had injury issues to boot…….