TAMPA — Yankees No. 1 prospect Gleyber Torres is listed as a 6-1, 175 pounds.
The 20-year-old Venezuelan shortstop looks smaller and hits bigger.
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Torres has a lot of pop of his size and showed it Sunday when hitting a few opposite-field homers to right field during batting practice at Yankees spring training.
Gleyber Torres uses the field extremely well, has opposite-field power, and for a young hitter to have that type of discipline and approach is pretty impressive, Yankees manager Joe Girardi said.
With Yankees manager Joe Girardi (28) and GM Brian Cashman (peach shirt) watching, touted shortstop prospect Gleyber Torres takes batting practice on Sunday, Feb. 19, 2017 at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa. (Randy Miller | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)
GM Brian Cashman and Girardi stood together behind the batting cage as Torres hit in a group with fellow shortstop prospect Jorge Mateo (also hitting in video), third baseman prospect Miguel Andujar and non-roster shortstop Ruben Tejada.
Torres, ranked as the third best prospect in baseball by MLB Pipeline, was the big return for the Yankees last July when closer Aroldis Chapman was traded to the Chicago Cubs.
Now the Yankees have Chapman back (on a five-year, $86-million contract) plus Torres, who probably will begin 2017 playing Double-A ball in the Eastern League for the Trenton Thunder.
Torres hit 11 homers in 125 high-A games last season, which is very good for a 19-year-old shortstop at that level. His total probably would have been higher if he hadn’t spent the final two months playing for the Tampa Yankees in the Florida State League, which has a lot of big ballparks.
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Later, Torres added three more homers in 18 games in a great Arizona Fall League performance that included a batting title (.403 average) and league MVP honors.
“I think (Torres has) handled the expectations well up until this point,” Girardi said. “Obviously when we acquired him, his name was a big name in that trade and he went out and won the MVP of the Fall League.
“I like what I see from him. He’s a strong young man that uses the whole field and he’s got a lot of life in his bat. He’s played shortstop well. I see why people are excited about him and we’re very excited.”
Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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