Yankees' Torrens Ready To Resume Career — College Baseball, MLB Draft, Prospects

NEW YORK—Catcher Luis Torrens’ surgically-repaired right shoulder will be ready, with no restrictions, when spring training opens in February.

Now the Yankees hope the soon-to-be 20-year-old returns to the form he flashed in 2014 when he starred at short-season Staten Island and ranked on the organization’s Top 10 Prospects list. That season he hit .256/.331/.383 in 62 games and threw out 39 percent of basestealers.

Talent evaluators once raved about Torrens’ arm, but after having shoulder surgery and missing the entire 2015 season, he faces plenty of questions.

“He is healthy and ready, full bore, for spring training,” general manager Brian Cashman said of the Valencia, Venezuela, native who signed in July 2012. “We expect him to re-establish his value in 2016.”

Torrens experienced a right shoulder problem late in the 2014 season and a stab at rehab didn’t work, which led to surgery in 2015. According to farm director Gary Denbo, Torrens made it back to catch, hit and throw near the end of 2015 instructional league.

“In addition to taking English classes, he worked hard in the weight room,” Denbo said of the Torrens, who is listed at 6 feet and 180 pounds. “He is bigger and stronger and looks more like a man than he did a year ago. I still see the good swing, the hands of a good hitter. He is smart and confident. He has a good body for a catcher.”

Had he remained healthy, Torrens might have reached high Class A Tampa in 2015. Now, he faces an assignment to low Class A Charleston, where he finished 2014.

Gordon Blakeley, who now works for the Braves, was instrumental in signing Torrens for the Yankees, and he was in Greenville, S.C., the night Torrens got hurt.

“I thought he would eventually be an everyday catcher in the big leagues,” Blakeley said. “He could catch, throw and had a good swing. Remember, he was 18 and playing in the South Atlantic League.”

YANKEE DOODLES

• With manager Al Pedrique moving from Double-A Trenton to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to replace Dave Miley, the Yankees turned to Bobby Mitchell to manage Trenton. He worked as a roving minor league instructor for outfielders and baserunning for the Braves in 2015.

• Having promoted Scott Aldred to pitching coordinator at the upper levels, the Yankees moved Tommy Phelps into the pitching coach position at Scranton. He enters his ninth season as a Yankees coach.