Now that the Tigers’ season is over, Gleyber Torres plans to undergo sports hernia surgery, the second baseman told reporters (including Tony Paul of the Detroit News) in the wake of the club’s loss in Game Five of the ALDS. Torres revealed he had been dealing with the injury for several months and praised the Tigers’ training and medical staff for helping him continue playing.
“It wasn’t good [start of the] second halfTorres said.It was a lot of pain. But we’re doing a really good job of keeping me playing… It’s not about the numbers, it’s just about playing every day.”
However, a look at Torres’ numbers clearly shows that something was wrong. Torres hit .281/.387/.425 over 359 plate appearances in the first half of the season, performing well enough to earn a starting nod as an American League second baseman in the All-Star Game. However, once the All-Star break was over, Torres was hitting just .223/.320/.339 over his final 269 PA of the regular season. He seemed to rediscover his stroke during Detroit’s first seven postseason games, but an 0-for-6 performance during yesterday’s 15-inning marathon with the Mariners lowered Torres’ playoff slash line to .235/.316/.382 over 38 PA.
Torres’ slide reflected the fate of the Tigers themselves. Detroit, one of baseball’s better teams for much of the season, went 9-22 in its final 31 games and barely squeaked into the postseason field in the final AL wild-card slot. Had the Tigers maintained their healthy AL Central lead, Torres likely would have gotten more of a chance to rest, and yet player and team infighting led to an unfortunate Catch-22 situation for the Tigers. The Tigers still needed Torres in the lineup as much as possible as their top second baseman, but Torres’ issues continued to add to the team’s woes (although Torres was far from the only Detroit player to underperform in September).
The injury adds context to Torres’ second-half decline and adds a wrinkle to his emerging free agent market. First, sports hernia surgeries usually require at least two months of recovery time and on the longer side almost twelve weeks, so the procedure should not impact his preparation for the start of Spring Training. Interested suitors can now wait until Torres has fully recovered before diving too deeply into his market, so he may not sign until late December or early January.
For the season as a whole, Torres hit .256/.358/.387 with 16 home runs over 628 PA, with below-average glove work (although better public defensive stats than his 2024 work as the Yankees’ second baseman). This equates to 2.6 fWAR, which was still eighth-best among all second basemen in 2025. Looking at the free agent market at second base, Torres is still perhaps the best option available, as Jorge Polanco‘s time at second base was also affected by injury.
Torres’ Octagon reps will clearly argue that their client’s first-half performance is a better reflection of what a healthy Torres can bring. Detroit signed Torres to a one-year, $15 million contract last winter that was essentially a cushion deal for the second baseman as he looked for a shorter-term deal and a better platform year in 2025 that could allow him to reenter the market with a stronger set of numbers. Torres hit .257/.330/.378 with 15 home runs over 665 PA (with a 105 wRC+ and 1.8 fWAR) for New York in 2024, so while he improved in Detroit, it wasn’t the leap forward he was hoping to achieve.
Would a return to Motown be possible? Torres is open to it and says: “Hopefully we’ll have a really good conversation here. I feel very good with this group. It was really special this year.” Retaining Torres would be a logical way for the Tigers to keep a right-handed bat within their left-handed lineup. On the other hand, a longer-term deal with a second baseman might not be attractive to a Tigers team that has some notable minor league infielders (Hao Yu Lee, Max Andersonand star prospect Kevin McGonigle) is approaching MLB readiness.
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