Why the Guardians "losing out" on Gleyber Torres might actually be a good thing

It appears that there may have been another unexpected twist at second base for the Cleveland Guardians in 2025. Before ultimately signing with the Detroit Tigers, it was the Guardians who were showing interest in the now-former New York Yankees second baseman Gleyber Torres. This is according to a report from the Detroit Free Press's Evan Petzold.

Petzold would note that the Guardians and several others were interested in Torres, "Many teams besides the Tigers were interested in Torres, including the Boston Red Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Guardians, Los Angeles Angels, San Francisco Giants, Toronto Blue Jays and Washington Nationals.". The interest in Torres from Cleveland's perspective was clearly after trading Andres Gimenez to the Toronto Blue Jays, freeing up a spot for him or anyone else for that matter.

At first, this may seem like another case of Cleveland's front office and ownership missing out on a good player due to penny-pinching. While it is likely that the Guardians were not willing to match the one-year $15 million contract offered by Detroit, not signing Torres could actually be a good thing for the Guardians.

Even though signing Torres would have been an offensive upgrade over the now-departed Gimenez or anyone else who would play second for the Guardians in 2025, $15 million is a lot of money for someone with a fluctuating offensive performance who is unlikely to match his output as a 22-year old in 2019 (.278/.337/.535 slash line with 38 home runs, 26 doubles, 90 RBI, and 125 WRC+). Granted, if he were to be just average at the plate, it would be an ugprade over what they have seen the past two years from Gimenez or are likely to see in 2025 with whoever takes the starting job. However, offense is just part of the equation here.

Torres has never been strong defensively, and going from a strong defensive second baseman with below-average to average offense in Gimenez to one with poor defensive skills with average to above-average offense would be an overcorrection philosophically. Sure, it would have been great to get more offensive production from Gimenez while he was here, but pulling a George Costanza and doing the opposite while paying Torres more would not have been their best idea.

This is all before considering the preferred financial range in which the Guardians prefer to operate. Signing Torres to a similar contract could have cost Clevland one of Shane Bieber or Carlos Santana, and with the starting rotation needing all the help it can get and the Guardians needing to find a replacement for Josh Naylor, this would not have been the best route to take.

One final thing that must be accounted for in all this is the upcoming MLB Debut of Travis Bazzana. The first overall pick in the 2024 MLB June Amateur Draft is making his way through Cleveland's minor league system and should make his debut at some point in 2025. Signing Torres would essentially block him from playing second in the majors and could delay his call-up to the Guardians. It is better for the Guardians to have interim options until Bazzana is ready that way, there is no one standing in his way and preventing him from taking over as Cleveland's full-time second baseman. Torres would have been in Bazzana's way, and steering clear of any unnecessary friction is in the best interests of all parties involved.