Does Gleyber Torres deserve a similar Matt Chapman contract to play 3B?

The Detroit Tigers have had a mixed bag of options to start the 2025 season at third base. They missed out on Alex Bregman in free agency to Boston. Matt Vierling has a shoulder strain currently with an unknown timetable to return, let alone is not a natural third baseman defensively.

Jace Jung and Hao-Yu Lee both seem to be on the cusp of the job, but both players with some flaws both offensively and defensively at this point to garner a call up. All while Zach Mckinstry, Andy Ibáñez, Javy Baéz, etc. have all been stop gaps to fill the need through the first couple weeks of the season.

The Tigers signed 28-year-old, two time all-star, Gleyber Torres to a one-year deal worth $15 million to be the team’s everyday second baseman early in the 2024-2025 offseason. This move was done to off put Colt Keith from his second base role, force the hand of Spencer Torkelson and Justyn-Henry Malloy to hit their way on the roster, and seemingly fill the dire need of a right-handed hitter into a very heavy left-handed hitting lineup.

Gleyber wanted a one year prove it deal to bet on himself. He was quoted discussing his belief in his abilities and betting big on his skill set to reset his market and obtain a lucrative $100 million deal in the following 2025-2016 offseason, by turning down other opportunities with longer term and higher dollar values than the 1/$15 million he inked in Detroit (with rumored requests to play third base for the Washington Nationals).

He has mainly been playing second base since the 2022 season with the Yankees, where he last had 6 appearances at short stop that season. However, Gleyber turned down opportunities to move to third base in the 2024 season in the Bronx when the team acquired Jazz Chisholm Jr. to accommodate the team’s trade deadline acquisition.

Gleyber has been a negative defender for several years now, with consistent mental lapses at his position, despite having solid tools to be at least an average fielder. His desire to stay at second base has long been speculated that he prefers the position, mainly to ensure his potential free agent value.

However, does Gleyber Torres garner the $100 million plus offer that he desires if he would be willing to move to third base? We can take a look at his offensive production and find nearly an identical profile in none other than recent third baseman extension candidate, Matt Chapman with the San Francisco Giants.

Chapman is a 31-year-old, 2 time platinum glove award-winning third baseman that has had some ups and downs in his career in both Oakland and Toronto. Similarly, in the 2024-2025 offseason, Chapman sought a large contract over $100 million and found no such luck until ultimately pairing with the Giants on a 3 year / $54 million deal with opt-outs after the first and second seasons to essentially prove himself to earn longer term security. Chapman later mashed in the 2024 season in the Bay Area, netting himself a 6 year / $151 million deal to buy out his pre-existing contract to establish an extension to keep him in a Giants uniform. 

While you might not think that Torres and Chapman are alike players, their offensive outputs are overall quite similar. Torres has a career slash line of .266 batting average / .344 on base percentage / .776 OPS. Chapman meanwhile, with a slightly better slash line of .242 batting average / .329 on base percentage / .792 OPS. Gleyber owns a career OPS+ of 113 vs. Chapman owning a 119 OPS+ (adjusted for ballpark dimensions with league average being 100). Gleyber also with a 114 career WRC+ vs. Chapman with a 119 career WRC+ as well. Gleyber strikes out on average about 136 times per year vs. the high strike out total of Chapman at roughly 180 times per year (based on 162 game average).

They each have very similar batted ball data. Gleyber owns an average fly ball percentage of 30.3% and ground ball percentage of 37.5% over his 8 year career, while Chapman provides a 29.1% fly ball percentage and a 36.9% ground ball percentage in his 9-year career. Chapman offers a higher hard hit percentage of 50.5% and average exit velocity of 92.7 mph, while Gleyber is providing a 39.2% hard hit percentage with an average exit velocity of 89.0 mph.

While postseason numbers are a bit skewed by amount of appearances, Gleyber has a much higher career post season OPS of .795 in 12 career series appearances, while Chapman in a much smaller sample of 4 series has an OPS of .664 in his career. 

The major differences from an eye test perspective, Chapman is a multi time gold glove winning third base man nearing his 32nd birthday with very high amount swing and miss in his game, where Torres is a below average to bad second baseman defensively who just recently turned 28 years old, but historically is a much more disciplined hitter at the plate providing quality at bats. Both players provide solid extra base power, despite both having a decent gap in age with similar overall big league tenures.

The major key in this debate, we have never seen Gleyber play third base in any capacity and no one knows whether he would be any good at the position at all, nor if he would be willing to make the switch. The natural progression for Gleyber in his career may be to move from the keystone to the corner of the infield, despite his reluctance to do so in New York. However, if the money is right, maybe he could be persuaded.

The Tigers were willing to give Alex Bregman a deal of 6 years / $171.5 million entering his age 31 through 37 seasons. Would the Tigers be willing to put roughly a 5 to 6 year / $100 to $120 million deal on the table for Gleyber to move across the diamond to play third at a younger age 28 through 34 seasons? The Tigers’ lineup is lacking impact bats that hit from the right side. And the Tigers might be prudent to keep Torres as a constant in this lineup going forward.

Not only would this speculative plan alleviate current day roster construction (keep recently extended Colt Keith at second base as well as give the reins to both Torkelson and J-Hen at first base, in addition allow Vierling to platoon in his more natural outfield positions), this also could possibly open up some possible trade depth in the Tigers system in one of Hao-Yu Lee or Jace Jung.

The Tigers could use a prospect to pursue any other potential roster holes in the chase for a possible AL Central and AL Pennant run in 2025 and beyond. One of Jung or Lee could slot back into their more natural position of second base and grow into that position as the opportunity allows. Tigers also obviously have Kevin McGonigle up and coming in their system and can let him develop until the proper opportunity and infield position allows it to naturally occur in the (hopefully near) future. 

The upcoming free agent class in 2025-2026 is quite sparse as well for impact position players, and more heavy in star pitching. Kyle Tucker being the main superstar bat is a corner outfielder. The main third basemen that could be available would be Eugenio Suarez (entering his age 34 season), or potentially Alex Bregman if he decides to opt out of his current 3 year / $120 million deal in Boston (entering his age 32 season). Other notable names (Kyle Schwarber, Pete Alonso, Luis Arraez, Marcell Ozuna, Cody Bellinger) are all in positions that the Tigers have more concrete fixtures in their current day lineup and future plans in the minor leagues. 

This entire discourse could be entirely premature, as Gleyber is currently on the shelf with an oblique / side injury, despite his productive spring training and first two regular season games. However, with the optionality that the Tigers so consistently ask of their players, is it not worth considering this hypothetical scenario for the betterment of the current and future roster construction of the Detroit Tigers? 

Nick Spillane // @NeekSpills8 

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