Even two seasons away from free agency, Gleyber Torres could read the distant writing on the wall.
Back in February 2023 as he reported to spring training, the infielder was asked if the Yankees had approached him about a contract extension, to which Torres responded in part: “I wish.”
After a rocky finish to his time in pinstripes, he could not wish it into existence, signing a one-year deal with the Tigers on Friday that is worth $15 million, The Post’s Joel Sherman confirmed.
Thus ends a mostly successful if polarizing tenure as a Yankee for Torres, who once was billed as the possible future of the team — a future that seemed to arrive in 2018-19 until he settled into a more complementary role.
The Yankees could market Torres as the future because their present all of a sudden was forgettable: In a rarity, they sold at the 2016 trade deadline and sent Aroldis Chapman to the Cubs (with whom he won a World Series) and received a 19-year-old gem of a prospect in Torres, outfield prospects Billy McKinney and Rashad Crawford and righty Adam Warren.
Torres was the get, a teenage shortstop out of Venezuela who could make adjustments on the fly at the plate. He got his shot in April 2018 and immediately played like a star, cracking the All-Star team in his first two seasons and displaying power that he hadn’t even as a prospect, drilling 62 home runs in two years.
But his pop began to disappear in the ensuing years, which coincided with more focus toward the baseballs themselves that had been bouncier in 2018-19.
Torres’ offense tumbled, with a combined .703 OPS in 2020-21.
He was asked for more defensively, the Yankees moving the second baseman to shortstop full time in 2020 and ’21, and he came up with less: Amid a flurry of errors and misplays, he was demoted back to second base in September 2021.
Seven seasons of sky-high highs and ocean-low lows finished somewhere in the middle.
From 2022-24, Torres could not approach his All-Star years but did find a different route toward being a contributor, re-emerging as an above-average hitter with a .757 OPS in the span.
Last season, during his pressurized walk-year, he began terribly but put together a strong second half and October with a more contact-oriented approach and finished the season as the leadoff hitter ahead of Juan Soto and Aaron Judge.
But even in his good days, he found ways to frustrate and was benched for a lack of hustle in an August game and blundered his way to outs on the base paths too often.
The Yankees did not tag Torres with a qualifying offer despite a need of a second baseman or third baseman and a leadoff hitter.
Many top targets are off the free-agent board, and it’s possible the Yankees will have to fill the hole left by Torres through trade (or simply not fill it).
For the past several seasons, the Yankees had not talked about a long-term deal with Torres in large part because there were alternatives. Oswald Peraza had a strong prospect shine. Jorbit Vivas was brought in. Caleb Durbin looked promising.
Now, Peraza has proven little as a major leaguer, Vivas is merely a prospect and Durbin is a Brewer.
The Yankees no longer have ready-made internal options to fill the void, yet still they knew they had to move on from Torres.
For several years, Torres has known the same.
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