Rave reviews for Gleyber Torres could foreshadow a longer future with Tigers

Gleyber Torres is on the cusp of earning his first All-Star nod since 2019, and the first starting role of his career. He led second base voting in the American League by a 600,000+ margin over the Orioles' Jackson Holliday, and he's in the lead with less than 24 hours to go before Phase 2 voting closes.

Torres' resurgent season has been a key element of the Tigers' success. His nearly .400 OBP leads all qualified hitters and made him exactly what Detroit has been looking for: a veteran with plate discipline.

Bob Nightengale called Torres' signing one of the "finest" of the offseason, and noted that he's quickly become a leader in the Tigers' clubhouse. What's more, he has a wealth of postseason experience and can turn into a beast in October.

It's exactly the bounce back year that he needed after leaving the Yankees with a lot of baggage, but there's a wrinkle for Tigers fans who have already grown attached to him. He's only in Detroit for one guaranteed year.

An extension feels pretty unlikely, but Torres has given the Tigers' front office a wealth of reasons to want to keep him beyond 2025, even if his market in free agency will be far more competitive than it was this past offseason.

Tigers should try to keep Gleyber Torres in Detroit past his one-year deal

Torres has only had good things to say about the Tigers' organization since joining, and has seemed to completely buy into management's philosophy of playing good, clean, fundamental baseball. Whatever monkey was on his back in his last few years in New York seem to have been completely banished; nearly all of his batting stats have improved since 2024, and even his infamously terrible defense is sitting around an acceptable league average this year.

No doubt there'll be other suitors quick to approach Torres in the offseason, but because he's done so well in Detroit, the team as a whole has done well, and especially if the Tigers make a deep postseason run, he could be inclined to stay. A Jack Flaherty-esque deal seems realistic — one more guaranteed year around $20 million with a player or mutual option for a second, after which shortstop/second base prospect (the Tigers' No. 2 overall) Kevin McGonigle would be ready to come up to the majors.

The only thing that could really complicate this would be Colt Keith's uncertain future in the infield. Torres shifted him off of second base, but if Keith works out at third base, then there's not much standing in the way of the Tigers keeping Torres on.