Yankees fans give Gleyber Torres warm welcome in return to Stadium
The Tigers’ Gleyber Torres acknowledges the Yankee Stadium crowd before his first at-bat against the Yankees during the first inning on Tuesday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Gleyber Torres was at the Stadium for the first time as a visiting player on Tuesday night as he and the Tigers opened a three-game series with the Yankees. He was curious about how the fans might react when he came to bat in the first inning. He had to feel good about it when it happened.
After a brief embrace from catcher Austin Wells and a salute to the home dugout, the crowd showered his with warm applause and he doffed his batting helmet to them.
The Yankees did a video tribute for Torres on the scoreboard after the first inning and he came out of the visitors dugout for a curtain call.
Torres spent his first seven seasons with the Yankees, but said there was no resentment toward them for not offering him a new contract.
“I know it's a business,” Torres said Tuesday afternoon before Detroit took batting practice. “Any team will always be [looking to] improve [on] whatever doesn’t work during the year and, unfortunately, I didn't do my best . . . Detroit gave me the opportunity to play and I am really grateful. I don’t have any bad feelings for the [Yankees] organization.”
Torres was an All-Star for the first time since the second of his seven seasons with the Yankees, in 2019 and entered play Tuesday batting .259 with 73 runs scored, 15 home runs and 66 RBIs.
Torres was a big disappointment in the first half of last season, though he did pick it up late. In his last 66 regular-season games, he slashed .299/.372/.425. And in 14 postseason games he had two home runs, eight RBIs, 10 runs scored and a .348 on-base percentage.
He said that the things he improved upon late while batting in front of Juan Soto and Aaron Judge have carried over into this season.
“Last year was literally a struggle, defensively and offensively, but I figured out in the second half [the] hitting a little bit better,” Torres said. “When you got Soto and Judge behind you, just take a good at-bat . . . I just learned how to get more pitches last year, get on base, take my walks, and this year, just like [last], it’s the same plan.”
“He's a really good player – we saw that here [with] especially the kind of finish he had last year, the final two months of the season, and then all through October,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “He’s kind of carried it over there and been . . . a key part of their season and why they're in first place.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
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