Gleyber Torres is always watching. With the Tigers leading the A's 3-0 in the seventh inning of Thursday's rubber match, Torres came to the plate against right-handed reliever J.T. Ginn. The inning prior, Ginn "was throwing a lot of sinkers," Torres observed afterward. "And especially the situation, a man on first and one out, maybe he’s looking for a ground ball double play, so I just prepared for that pitch."
Sure enough, Ginn left a sinker up in the zone on his first offering and Torres drove it 370 feet over the right-field fence to put away the game. It was yet another sharp at-bat for the Tigers' sharpest hitter.
"I think my preparation is really good this year," Torres said after Detroit's 8-0 win. "I try to be more focused on the little things. Like, first two at-bats, if I don’t get any hits, I just try to put more focus on what I do, what I missed, and try to see how they try to pitch me from the beginning and make the adjustment. I think that’s the main key. I feel good right now. I just go before the inning and get a really good plan and try to execute it."
The Tigers signed Torres last winter to be a steady right-handed bat near the top of their order. Torres signed with the Tigers to rebuild his value on a rising team after a down year with the Yankees, who last season wanted to move him from second base to third.
The one-year, $15 million pact has been a win for both sides. Torres is setting himself up to cash in on a long-term deal this winter, perhaps right here in Detroit. The Tigers are gearing up for a run at the World Series with the best second baseman in the American League who's likely headed back to the All-Star Game next month.
"He’s doing things at a really high level," said A.J. Hinch. "What I’ve seen is, not a lot changes with Gleyber. He trusts his routine, he trusts his setup, he trusts his eyes. When he has a rough at-bat, it never really goes anywhere. He doesn’t take it to defense, he doesn’t take it to his next at-bat. That’s veteran behavior, but it’s also not easy for everybody to just do that.
"I’m not surprised (by his performance) because we felt like we signed a good player, but I admire him for his consistency, and that includes the walks, the long at-bats, the grinds, the foul balls when he’s not even really trying to put it in play. He’s a tough out."
Torres, in fact, has been one of the toughest outs in the game this season: his career-high .386 on-base percentage ranks 11th in the majors. At a time when an increasing number of players are selling out for power, Torres is the only hitter in the American League with more walks than strikeouts, and one of only five in the bigs in a group that includes Juan Soto, Mookie Betts and Kyle Tucker. Torres hasn't gone two full games in a row this year without getting on base.
Hinch shuffles the Tigers' lineup like a card-dealer. One of the only constants is Torres at the top, typically in the 2 hole. Hinch joked Thursday that "I can’t give him a day" off. In all seriousness, "that is something that as a manager I really respect and appreciate." Aside from a brief stint on the injured list early this season, Torres posts every day. And carries a competitive edge into the batter's box ahead of sluggers like Riley Greene, Spencer Torkelson and Kerry Carpenter, for an offense that has quietly been one of the best in baseball.
"I think for the opposing pitcher, they look at the lineup and they’re like, 'Damn, there’s no easy out,'" said Torkelson. "You attack Gleyber, he gets his hit, and then oh, look, you gotta face Carp, then you gotta face Greeny. (And then you, we added.) Yeah, and then I’m after them. It's really a tone-setter when he’s on base every frickin’ time, it seems like. He’s a really professional hitter, and an unbelievable 2-hole/leadoff guy."
Hinch knows what a problem Torres can be for the other team. He managed against him frequently when Torres was a two-time All-Star in New York and the Yankees were trying to dethrone Houston in the AL. Torres used to give Hinch and the Astros fits. That's partly why Hinch values his presence so much now, because "the other side has to deal with him."
"I know he’s a focal point for the other manager to have to (make decisions), especially when we get guys around him swinging the bat well," Hinch said. "Obviously they know our strategy to pinch-hit quite a bit, they know that’s coming, so Gleyber ends up in a really big spot where you need steadiness in the order for all of this to work. And his at-bat quality has been great."
The Tigers expected this when they added Torres to the team. And they figured they could coax more out of him, committed as they've become to player development -- in the big leagues as much as A-ball. But Torres might be providing even more than they imagined. The end of his time in New York wasn't pretty; it still seems to disappoint him. He led MLB second basemen in errors each of his last two seasons, after a failed experiment at shortstop. Frustration followed him to the plate, where he was pressing to perform.
At the halfway point last year, Torres was hitting .219 with a .642 OPS. While he rebounded in the second half and ultimately helped the Yankees reach the World Series, he went 3-for-21 once they got there, in a five-game loss to the Dodgers. In New York, they remember what you've done for them lately. Torres looks freed from some of this weight in Detroit.
"I don’t say it’s pressure, because I always played there," he said. "It’s just, I didn’t do the job, and it was tough because I didn’t help the team in the moment. It was a struggle offensively and defensively, and fans and the media always push a little bit more to get better (play). And here is the same thing: it’s a really competitive team. It makes me proud because all the guys welcomed me from the beginning really well. I feel at home from the first day. A.J. talks to me, like, every day, we have really good conversations.
"And the pressure is always there because you want to be good. Every player wants to be good every time, and those kind of things help me to get better. As a team we play good, and that’s the way I push myself."
For Torres, "the little things" have made a big difference this year. He's paying particular attention to not only the repertoire of opposing pitchers, which is part of any old scouting report, but how they're specifically attacking him. By refusing to expand the zone -- Torres has the second lowest chase rate in the majors, to Soto -- he's forcing pitchers to come into it. And he's making them pay when they do, squaring up balls at a rate (per StatCast) that places him among the top 20 hitters in the bigs.
"The game teaches you how they pitch you, even the hitter before you," said Torres. "If you miss a couple pitches or get a strikeout or a rollover, I just go back to the iPad and see how they pitched me, like, how is the sequencing of every pitch, and just try to prepare a little better for the next at-bat. And so far, everything is going well."
Torres, 28, said he's always had the iPad routine, "but I tried to follow it with more focus last year in the second half. I showed a little more consistency at the plate and just tried to follow the plan." Indeed, for all of the angst in New York, Torres hit .292 with a .780 OPS after the All-Star Break last year, numbers more representative of his career. That's the hitter the Tigers signed, and the one they're getting: Torres is hitting .281 with an .816 OPS this year.
"Since spring training, I’ve been working really hard on my routines," he said. "I don’t think much about those stats, I just go have fun. When I’m seeing the ball well, I don’t get in trouble. Sometimes in the season I get a little bit of struggles and just go back to my hitting coach to work and talk about those details, and they help me really well. They always keep me on the same page."
The last time Torres made the All-Star Game was in 2019, his second season in the bigs. He crushed 38 homers that year and garnered some down-ballot votes for MVP. He doesn't slug like that these days, but he's as solid a hitter as ever. In fact, by OPS+, which adjusts for factors like ballparks, i.e. the short porch at Yankee Stadium, Torres is a better hitter than ever. And he's back to playing smooth defense at second.
On Thursday, Torres was named a finalist for the All-Star Game as the runaway leader in fan votes among AL second basemen. He'll face Jackson Holliday in a vote-off for the starting spot. He'll almost certainly be elected either way, with the reserves chosen by the Player Ballot and the Commissioner's Office.
"It’s going to be an honor, for sure," Torres said. "I really appreciate the fans and all the people who voted for me so far. It would be amazing to go back to the All-Star Game, be around all the best players in the game. It’s going to be fun for me and my family."
Ideally, Torres will be accompanied by Greene and his clubhouse neighbor Javy Baez, both of whom are finalists in the outfield -- "and a couple relievers, for sure!" he said. "It’s going to be special. We’ve been playing really well."
For the Tigers this season, a slump is a couple losses in a row. For Torres, it's a couple games without a hit -- with a few walks to balance things out. He's been the most consistent player on the most consistent club in the majors. They would not be here without each other, the team lifting Torres, Torres lifting the team.
"When you target a free agent, you just want the best version of that player to play for you, and we’re getting that because of a lot of work," said Hinch. "But a lot of credit goes to Gleyber for the way he approached joining this team, and how he could add value to an already winning team."