The 2017 season has come to an end for one of baseball’s best prospects. New York Yankees prospect Gleyber Torres — ranked as the second best prospect in baseball by MLB.com — will miss the rest of the 2017 season with Tommy John surgery.
Update on INF Gleyber Torres: pic.twitter.com/hYNTpjGIeb
— Yankees PR Dept. (@YankeesPR) June 19, 2017
Fortunately, there is some good news for Yankees fans.
One, Torres is not a pitcher. For pitchers, the recovery time for Tommy John Surgery is more than a year. If he was a pitcher, we probably wouldn’t be seeing Torres again until spring training in 2019.
Two, while Torres is right handed, the Tommy John surgery is on Torres’ left elbow. So, it’s not as likely to linger with him.
Still, this is a downer for New York and its fans. Between AA Trenton and AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Torres was slashing at .287/.383/.480. He added seven home runs and seven steals, as well. He was a natural replacement for the struggling Chase Headley.
Now, if the Yankees want to replace Headley in 2017, they’ll likely have to do so via the trade market.