TAMPA — Gleyber Torres gets it.
The second baseman reiterated Wednesday that he “wants to be a Yankee for life.”
But as he stares down his final season before hitting free agency, he and the Yankees have yet to engage in any talks about a contract extension.
And while Torres said he was open to doing so before the regular season, he didn’t sound like he expected that to happen.
“I don’t blame [GM Brian Cashman] and also I don’t blame the organization [for not] talking about extensions,” Torres said Wednesday morning.
“Because unfortunately in the past couple years, we’ve had a couple extensions like [Luis Severino] and [Aaron Hicks] and unfortunately they got injured. As a team and as a business plan, it’s not a [great] deal to get an extension and get injured.”
Torres is a career .267 hitter with 123 home runs and 378 RBIs across six seasons in The Bronx.
Torres also cited the Yankees not extending Aaron Judge (though they did offer him one, albeit at a much lower salary than he eventually got from them in free agency).
“They may be waiting for after the season [to have] really good conversations,” said Torres, who was the Yankees’ second-best hitter last season behind Judge. “I can control what I can control and try to play this year better. Prove myself and prove to the team I can play every year better and better. Let’s wait to see what happens after the season.”
Cashman confirmed last week that he had not had any extension talks with Torres and described him as “our second baseman for this year.”
Torres is just one of the Yankees’ impact players entering their walk year, along with Juan Soto, Alex Verdugo and Clay Holmes.
The uncertainty isn’t all that new for the 27-year-old, who has been a popular name in trade talks over the last few offseasons and trade deadlines.
But Torres admitted the thought has at least crossed his mind that he could be entering his final season with the organization that traded for him as a prospect back in 2016.
“I can’t lie — yeah, I think sometimes maybe this is gonna be my last year because I don’t know what the business plan is next year,” Torres said. “But man, it’s just motivate myself. We play for another team sometimes. It’s a business. I don’t know what the plan is next year for the Yankees or myself. I can just control playing better and prepare for next year.”