Gleyber Torres ready for playoffs in what could be last with Yankees

Gleyber Torres doesn’t know what lies ahead for him in free agency, so he’s choosing to focus on the present and perhaps a final postseason run in The Bronx. 

He acknowledged Friday he has thought about the possibility of this being his last October as a Yankee with free agency looming following the playoffs. 

“Sometimes I do think about it, I’m not gonna lie,’’ Torres said before hitting leadoff again versus the Pirates at the Stadium. “The future is difficult to predict and I don’t know what’s gonna happen after the postseason. I’m trying to enjoy everything with my teammates and we have another playoffs to be in.” 

Torres’ up-and-down season has been on an upswing, at least at the plate, as he entered Friday with five extra-base hits in his previous 13 games as part of a second half in which the second baseman has put up a respectable .782 OPS in 61 games after July 13. 

“It’s really hard to explain how I started and struggling the first few months,’’ Torres said. “It was really horrible and frustrating. Every day, I’d go to the [batting] cage, do the right thing and then go 0-for-4 with errors and strikeouts. It’s a good thing everybody else was raking, but after the [All-Star] break I played better.” 

There have still been too many mental lapses and lack of hustle plays, but Aaron Boone has stuck with Torres at the top of the lineup and in the middle of the infield. 

“These playoffs are gonna be really special,’’ Torres said. “I’ve learned a lot this year and we got to celebrate [Thursday].” 

It’s something Torres lamented the Yankees couldn’t do a year ago, when he had a solid season at the plate, but the team failed to reach the playoffs for the first time in his career. 

“This year means more because we didn’t celebrate anything last year,’’ Torres said. “From 2018 to ’22, we made the postseason every year and maybe we took it for granted. Then last year we got punched in the face.” 

So he’s enjoying the ride this time around. 

“We don’t know if it’s the last celebration for me or for any of us,’’ Torres said. “So I want to play well.” 

In the middle of some of that solid play, though, have been the mistakes that have hurt Torres at times during his career. 

He’s been criticized for a lackadaisical approach to pop-ups and makes an occasional baserunning blunder. 

It was that kind of play that cost the Yankees most recently Tuesday, when, trailing by a run, Torres was thrown out between third and home on a Juan Soto base hit to run the team out of a rally with Aaron Judge on deck against the Orioles. 

Even with the Yankees having clinched the AL East, they entered Friday still looking to secure the best record in the American League, which would secure home-field advantage through at least the ALCS, so that game could still haunt them. 

“I still have work to do,” Torres said. “Boone has stayed with me and that means a lot. I just want to do well.”