Yankees Intrigued by Trade Pitch for $27.6 Million Gleyber Torres Replacement

Gleyber Torres manned the second base position for the New York Yankees from 2018 through 2024, helping to solidify the middle infield well enough to help the Bronx Bombers get to the postseason in six of his seven years there. At the plate, Torres put up a respectable .774 OPS and hit 138 home runs in his Yankee career. But when it came time for Torres to enter the free agent market, the only team he had ever played for did not even bother making him an offer.

“I think they have other priorities and I’m not on the list,” Torres said after he signed a one-year deal with the Detroit Tigers on December 27. “I’m good.”

The Yankees were clearly disillusioned with Torres. Once ranked among the organization’s top five prospects and earning All-Star honors in each of his first two big league seasons, the Caracas, Venezuela, native saw his offensive production decline, with an OPS dipping to .697 in 2021. While he rebounded somewhat in the subsequent three seasons, he never recovered the spark that made the Yankees single him out as a star in the making early in his career.

Yankees Did Not Consider How to Replace Torres

Why the Yankees apparently had no interest in keeping him around, then, is understandable. But what the Bronx Bombers seem not to have considered is how to replace Torres. The Yankees are now considered long shots at best to snag the top infielder on the free agent market, Houston Astros third baseman Alex Bregman. But if not Bregman, where do the Yankees go next, when it comes to completing their infield picture — a necessity if they hope to earn a return trip to the World Series in 2025?

According to a new report by SI.com Yankees columnist Pat Ragazzo, the Yankees may be looking toward the team that defeated them in the 2024 World Series, the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Dodgers’ acquisition of Korean import Hyeseong Kim on a $22 million, three-year contract has created a logjam in the Los Angeles infield, and the odd man out, according to Ragazzo’s report, appears to be second basemen Gavin Lux.

Yankees ‘Interest’ in Trading for Lux

The Yankees “have shown some interest in a potential trade” for Lux, Ragazzo wrote.

“The Yankees could land Lux with the hope of getting the most out of him via a change of scenery, low-risk acquisition. His left-handed bat would help bring more balance to the Bronx Bombers’ lineup as well,” Ragazzo wrote. “For his career, Lux has a .252/.326/.383 slash line with a .709 OPS, 28 home runs and 155 RBI in 412 big-league games. He missed all of the 2023 season after suffering a torn ACL in Spring Training.”

Lux, the Dodgers 2016 first round draft pick (20th overall) will play 2025 on a one-year contract that pays him $2.76 million. But according to the sports business site Spotrac, Lux is in line for a big raise after that. The site sets his market value in free agency as $27.6 million over a four-year contract, which raises the possibility that the Yankees would want to sign Lux to a lower-cost extension if they go ahead with a trade for the 27-year old.

Jonathan Vankin JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist and writer who now covers baseball and other sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Press Association awards for sports feature writing. Vankin is also the author of five nonfiction books on a variety of topics, as well as nine graphic novels including most recently “Last of the Gladiators” published by Dynamite Entertainment. More about Jonathan Vankin