![]() 300 hitter for a few weeks, but you can't fake hitting a ball 110 mph the same way a pitcher can't fake a 100 mph fastball - and Odor has it. ![]() You can't fake exit velocity - you can fake being a. One, Odor has a history of strong exit velocities and the Yankees believe in exit velocity as an evaluation tool. What attracted the Yankees to Odor then? A few things. ![]() Aside from that, you're not getting anything as far as batting average or on-base ability, nor will he make a difference in the field or on the bases. Odor has three 30-homer seasons to his name and he averaged 30 homers per 162 games from 2017-20. The defensive stats have Odor as average to slightly below average at second base, so he's essentially a one-dimensional power hitter. One hundred and forty-one players have at least 1,500 plate appearances since 2017, and among those 141 Odor ranks. He posted a 106 OPS+ with 49 homers during his age 21-22 seasons from 2015-16, the Rangers gave him a six-year contract extension, and his performance immediately cratered. Sunday's single aside, Odor has been one of the worst players in baseball the last few years. Trading for a shortstop ( Trevor Story?) is always possible, though it's a little too early for that. That would improve their defense without drastically hurting their offense given how little Bruce has provided in the early going. New York is thin at the position.īecause Luke Voit is hurt and Bruce hasn't exactly stood out at first base, the Yankees could put LeMahieu at first and Torres at second, with Wade at short. Third on the shortstop depth chart is defensive wiz Kyle Holder, who the Reds returned as a Rule 5 Draft pick at the end of spring training. Recently demoted utility infielder Tyler Wade is a good defender who hasn't hit at the MLB level. I wouldn't expect the Yankees to move Torres off shortstop based on two bad weeks to start the season, but, even if they did decide to do that, the alternatives aren't great. It's an internal clock issue as much as anything, and it's not always easy to change a player's natural tendencies. In practice, it's not that simple, because the Yankees and Torres have been working on this for several years now. You drill it into the guy's head that he needs to play with more urgency. In theory, correcting carelessness is simple. Most egregiously, Torres played a Pedro Severino ground ball too nonchalantly last Wednesday, and his poor throw resulted in an error that allowed the go-ahead run to score. Torres made two throwing errors during the first week of the season and had several other poor throws that led to infield singles. Year 2 with Torres as the full-time shortstop looks an awful lot like Year 1 in the early going. The Yankees committed to Torres at short. They re-signed LeMahieu to play second base this past offseason and Gio Urshela is locked in at third. Once we got him back online and in shape, we saw - towards the last 20 games including the playoffs - the Gleyber Torres we're used to seeing."ĭuring that same interview Cashman said "I acknowledge he is a better second baseman than shortstop." Ultimately, the Yankees opted not to make a permanent decision about Torres' long-term position based on an unusual pandemic season. "On his return from the shutdown, (we spent the) first half of the season playing catchup, maybe in the first 40 or 45 games of the season playing catchup. "(Torres) wasn't in the best shape to start the second spring training," Yankees GM Brian Cashman said during a YES Network interview in December. He was a below-average defender according to Defensive Runs Saved (minus-9), Ultimate Zone Rating (minus-5), and Outs Above Average (minus-1). In the shortened 60-game season, Torres committed the fifth most errors (nine) in baseball while playing the 169th most defensive innings (320 2/3). Year 1 with Torres as the full-time shortstop did not go particularly well. He has the above-average range and arm to play those positions or shortstop. He shuffled around during his brief (2017) season, playing 15 games at third base and 10 more at second base before the injury. Defensively, there's no reason Torres can't stick at shortstop, but the emergence of Didi Gregorius in New York necessitated that Torres learn other positions quickly.
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