New York Yankees Urged to Have Patience During Former All-Star's Slump

The New York Yankees need to give their former All-Star time to figure it out at the plate.

Dylan Sanders | May 7, 2024

Apr 13, 2024; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; New York Yankees second baseman Gleyber Torres (25) singles / David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

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New York Yankees

The New York Yankees are currently 23-13 and stand as one of MLB's best teams. Not everyone on the roster is having the same level of success, though.

As Bleacher Report's Joel Reuter looked around the league for each team's most notable slumps, he landed on a former All-Star in New York.

Gleyber Torres has been a mostly consistent bat over the years for the Yankees, but something seems to be missing in 2024. So far, he is slashing just .222/.293/.274. He just hit his first home run a couple of days ago.

This could be just an early season slump for Torres, which would not be out of the ordinary. He has a slashing line of just .247/.318/.369, well below his career averages. Though, his numbers this season fall even further below his normal slumping stat lines.

The 27-year-old's main issue so far has been the contact that he has been making is just not very good. This might seem self explanatory, but at-bats do resemble that of the 2020 and 2021 seasons where he failed to bring a lot of power to the plate.

His xBA (.210) and xWOBA (.272) are way lower than they have ever been before. Statcast has his exit velocity around 88 this season after it being closer to 90 for the past two years.

Things are turning around for him, though, as he has on a four-game hit streak. His batting average has improved from being .186 heading into the end of April.

With him historically picking up the pace in May, it's probably right to give him some time before panicking. There are some troubling trends though.

He needs to focus on making better contact. He has just five extra-base hits this season and has not had a game with more than one.

Not only does he need to perform better to help the team this year, but he's in a contract year and will be looking to cash in on a big deal after the season. Teams may be wary of handing out a lot of money to someone coming off a year like this if nothing changes.

Published May 7, 2024

DYLAN SANDERS

Dylan Sanders graduated from Louisiana State University with a degree from the Manship School of Mass Communication in 2023. He was born in raised in Baton Rouge, LA but has also lived in Buffalo, NY. Though he is a recent graduate, he has been writing about sports since he was in high school, covering different sports from baseball to football. While in college, he wrote for the school paper The Reveille and for 247Sports. He was able cover championships in football, baseball and women's basketball during his time at LSU. He has also spent a few years covering the NFL draft and every day activities of the New Orleans Saints. He is a Senior Writer at Inside the Marlins and will also be found across Sports Illustrated's baseball sites as a contributing writer. You can follow him on Twitter or Instagram @dillysanders