Scott Harris Reveals Detroit Tigers Infield Plans After Gleyber Torres Signing
The Detroit Tigers made a major move on Friday morning when they signed New York Yankees infielder Gleyber Torres to a one-year contract worth $15 million.
While Torres has some serious offensive upside despite some recent down years and is still just 28 years old, the obvious question after the news broke became where he was going to play in the infield. Torres has spent the majority of his MLB career at second base, and while he has played some shortstop he has been almost exclusively a second baseman for the last few seasons. The idea of him filling the gaping need at third base made sense except for him being seemingly adamant against it, even reportedly turning down a deal with the Washington Nationals for that reason.
With Colt Keith coming off a very solid and promising rookie season at second base, someone was going to have to play a position they were not used to. President of baseball operations Scott Harris ended any mystery on Friday afternoon when he announced the team's plans on the right side of the infield in wake of the Torres signing.
Harris revealed that Torres is going to be the team's every day first baseman and Keith is going to move from second base to first base, potentially solving the issue of the black hole in the lineup that Spencer Torkelson caused last season from the first base spot while keeping Keith in the lineup and bringing in one of the better second basemen in baseball at his natural position.
Torkelson will still have an opportunity with a strong performance in camp and spring training to earn a role on the team, but by the sounds of it, the Tigers are not planning on going into the season counting on the former No. 1 overall pick to have an everyday role anymore.
If Keith is comfortable making the transition over to first, this is probably the best case scenario for all parties involved. While he wasn't a liability by any means at second, Keith was far from an elite defender at the position and is early enough in his career that making a switch to first shouldn't be the huge undertaking it would be for Torres to switch positions after seven seasons in the big leagues at second.
Without a doubt, Detroit improved their overall infield today. The question of just how much remains to be seen with the shuffling around of parties, but it sure seems like Harris likes what the Tigers have on the right side of the infield while he plots his next move in order to continue to get better.
