Torrens' 2017 In Review

The 2017 season has come to an end. By the time the Expanded Rosters/September call-ups season came along it was very clear that Luis Torrens would be lost to the clutches of San Diego, but now it's pretty much done. The New York Yankees have officially lost him for nothing (maybe some cash).

(More on this card later)

So how was Luis Torrens in 2017? Well let's look at his offensive output first.

Luis Torrens, Major League Hitter

There's no sugar coating it, Torrens didn't hit all that much in his rookie year. He hit .163/.243/.203, good for a 18 wRC+ and a -0.8 fWAR. Which is either a disappointment or much better than what you'd think he'd do after making the jump from single-A to quad-A.

Overall his approach can be described as "steady." He's pretty patient and isn't afraid to make the pitcher throw some more.

Courtesy of BrooksBaseball

However, he still ends up getting a fair bit of pitches outside the zone. He chases them and gets burned in the process.

Keep in mind that Torrens barely played 60 games this year so the sample size is, well, not as big as you'd want it to be tell anything substantial. But it's a good enough indicator of what he will need to work on next season.

Like how he tends to be a bit swing happy. I don't have access to every video of Torrens up at the plate but a good example of this might be this at-bat when a pitch up above the zone struck out Torrens.

In addition pitchers usually attacked the lower left corner of the zone (and the area just below the zone) where Torrens whiffs significantly as well. I'm sure this is the part where I'm supposed to say what he can do to improve that, but I'm 100% sure the Padres hitting coordinators are already on it. Plus I'm not a coach. I'm a guy with a baseball card collection.

Courtesy of BrooksBaseball

Still, leave the pitch about belt high on either side and Torrens can get a nice hit here and there (yeah, yeah, I know, it's standard for a pro to be able to do that). Like this one off of Robbie Ray. Ready or not, Torrens can punish mistakes.

One bright spot is that Torrens did better against lefties than he did against righties overall. Torrens hit for a .216 average and .250 BABIP against lefties while hitting for a .140 average and .197 BABIP against righties. Although, yes, it's important to remember that he faced twice as many RHPs as he did LHPs.

No real complaints from me though. This is how we got Torrens' best at-bat of the year. A three run triple off of Steven Matz (which would've been a home run in not-Petco).


Source: FanGraphs

Most of the balls Torrens put in play ended up being grounders and most of his fly balls didn't get far (his triple was the furthest hit he had all season). Torrens won't have a lot of power in his career but as he really gets going in his development it wouldn't surprise me to see him turn into a steady backstop with 15 HR power (most of those will be hit during away games at Coors I'm sure). He's really started to bulk up these past couple of years, could be any day now.

I suppose one more interesting factoid was that Fangraphs had Torrens as more of a groundball hitter (59.1% GBP on the year) this year than a flyball hitter (24.7% FBP in 2017). As Torrens taps into his power more I could see him churning out a few more line drives (16.1% LDP in 2017). Reminiscent of the hitting machine he was in Staten Island. Yes, I'm grasping at straws here and being mildly redundant, analysis is not my forte.

Going forward the number one key is getting Torrens consistent at-bats. Torrens ended up only playing eight games in April, 11 games in May, 13 games in June, 11 games in July, six (SIX!) games in August, and six (SIX!) games in September. Getting big league experience is well and good but for me it's hard to think of this as not being another lost year of development. I shudder to think of how many games Torrens would've had to spend on the bench if injuries to Hector Sanchez and Austin Hedges hadn't forced San Diego's hand at various points of the season.

In an ideal and sane world where Torrens is still in the Yankees org, his 2017 would've likely been being the everyday catcher at single-A Charleston to open the season before a quick callup to high-A Tampa and possibly a small cameo in double-A Trenton near the end of the season. But we live in our twisted reality which means that Torrens is likely headed to double-A next year. Torrens' patient approach is fine, but his bat does need some work and he's going to get a lot more at-bats next year to help him do just that.

Alright, so how did Torrens do defensively?

Luis Torrens, Major League Catcher

Torrens definitely had some high moments behind the plate in 2017. Like when he called a great game during a rare start behind the plate on July 2nd against the Dodgers. Torrens and Jhoulys Chacin held the then-juggernaut Dodgers offense at bay for most of the game. That said when all was said and done he ended the season with a catcher's ERA of 4.74 and a -3 DRS, the Padres didn't have much of a pitching rotation going into the season and they (and Torrens) got punished for it.

Torrens' arm showed no significant signs of post major arm surgery issues as he did throw out four would-be base stealers, good for a 22% caught stealing percentage. Unfortunately he also had 14 runners steal a base on him. And yes there were three passed balls. I wish I could see how fast his throws to second were compared to league average but I couldn't find that data.

This was Torrens' first time catching big league caliber pitching, going from catching Daris Vargas to Carter Capps. That's probably the greatest development Torrens got all season that's going to immediately make a difference for his growth. If nothing else, I at least think it's cool that Torrens got to be Chacin and Luis Perdomo's personal catcher for a bit. Chacin is a fellow native of Venezuela and Perdomo was the Padres' Rule 5 Draftee in 2016 after all.

My takeaway is that he didn't embarrass himself and learned some intangible stuff that's going to be part of a narrative in a Padres beat writer's profile of Torrens if/when he capitalizes on his potential as an all time great. Much like his at-bats, Torrens will need consistent time behind the plate too. His defensive capabilities have always made him a promising backstop, I suspect that his glove will come along faster than his bat when given more playing time.

Final Thoughts

First off I'm very glad that Torrens managed to make it throughout the whole season without any major injuries. It's now been two years since Torrens had that surgery that took away his 2015 season, and his arm showed no real signs of wear or tear. Hopefully he can have a normal season next year and finish with something like 130 games played under his belt.

Second, while I am bummed that Torrens won't be returning to the Bronx anytime soon, I am glad that Torrens can be clear of mind in 2018 and focus solely on making improvements and being really MLB ready as soon as possible.

Lastly, I'm just really glad I can say that my favorite player Luis Torrens is a big leaguer. Imagine, a player I've been following since his time in the very low minors made it. Now I have an answer to "so who's your favorite baseball player?" without having to explain he's a minor leaguer. Although I still have to explain that the Padres are indeed a real team :P. Nonetheless, I'm giddy all the same.

Thank you all for sticking with me to the end of this post. It's my first attempt at doing any sort of analysis of baseball matters and I'm very sure I've made a fool of myself one way or another. Please call me out on it if I did. I want to learn and improve. This post was fun and I do plan on doing it again every year of Torrens' career.

I was so dedicated to this point I made a bad video to accompany it. Behold my bad editing skills that butchered a perfectly good Modest Mouse song.

BTW, the card at the very top was my latest Torrens pickup. An orange Bowman Chrome refractor that's numbered 19/25. One more card closer to #100!

This was my first year in review post of Torrens the big leaguer. *Sobs* they grow up so fast.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care.

Resources (In Alphabetical Order):
Baseball Reference
Brooks Baseball
Fangraphs
MiLB.com
MLB.com