How Gleyber Torres could make Brian Cashman regret his offseason strategy

The New York Yankees are calling up top prospect Gleyber Torres on Sunday and fans are excited to see the young phenom play. He could, however, make Brian Cashman regret his offseason moves.

The New York Yankees will call up top prospect Gleyber Torres on Sunday, hoping he brings a spark to an underperforming team. Fans are obviously excited to see what the youngster can do but he could make general manager Brian Cashman regret his offseason strategy.

After acquiring Giancarlo Stanton from the Miami Marlins this offseason, Yankees fans urged Cashman to complete his team by signing or trading for a starting pitcher. Acquiring Gerrit Cole seemed inevitable. Michael Fulmer, Chris Archer, and Patrick Corbin’s names popped up. The Yanks showed interest in Yu Darvish. Lance Lynn and Alex Cobb remained on the open market far longer than most expected. In the end, however, Cashman stuck with the rotation that brought him one game shy of the World Series last season.

The Yankees weren’t done making moves, however. Uncomfortable going into the season with two rookie infielders, Cashman traded for Brandon Drury and signed veteran Neil Walker. Those two moves assured that top prospects Torres and Miguel Andujar would start the 2018 season in the minor leagues.

The price tags were certainly different, but Cashman decided to improve the lineup and stick with his starting pitchers instead of adding an arm and going with the young hitters. That decision may be backfiring.

Drury started off the season hitting just .217 through eight games before landing on the disabled list with migraines and blurry vision. This resulted in an early season promotion for Andujar. Although the prospect struggled a bit out of the gate, Andujar has caught fire of late, hitting .417 with two home runs and three doubles over the last week, and is finally looking like the impressive offensive player we saw briefly last year.

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Walker, although he’s provided solid insurance at first base with Greg Bird injured, has not gotten his bat going so far this season. He’s hitting just .183 with two doubles and three RBI in 14 games. Walker’s struggles, combined with Tyler Wade’s offensive ineptitude (.086 batting average through 13 games), has led to the Yankees calling up Torres for Sunday’s game.

In 14 games at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Torres hit .347 with three doubles, a triple, a home run, and 11 RBI. He’ll now join Andujar in New York’s infield and just 19 games into the 2018 season, Cashman will have the scenario he was uncomfortable with to start the year.

If the Yankees were going to have two rookies in their infield anyway, should Cashman have used his time and resources to add another starting pitcher this offseason instead of Drury and Walker?

This is a legitimate question only because the Yankees’ starting pitching has been inconsistent thus far. Masahiro Tanaka has put up back-to-back duds after two solid outings to start the season, Sonny Gray has done the same and seems to have lost his mechanics, and CC Sabathia has already taken a trip to the disabled list. Having an Alex Cobb or Patrick Corbin might be more beneficial right now than having Drury and Walker.

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If Gleyber Torres hits the ground running, lives up to the hype, and becomes the everyday second baseman for the Yankees, fans will love it. However, if he and Andujar become everyday fixtures in New York’s lineup, Brian Cashman may regret adding veteran hitters this offseason instead of improving his starting rotation.