Tigers 2B to undergo sports hernia surgery

With the Tigers’ season now over, Gleyber Torres is planning to undergo sports hernia surgery, the second baseman told reporters (including the Detroit News’ Tony Paul) in the aftermath of the club’s loss in Game Five of the ALDS.  Torres revealed that he has been dealing with the injury for several months, and praised the Tigers’ training and medical staff for helping him keep playing.

“It was not good from the [start of the] second half,” Torres said.  “It was a lot of pain.  But we do a really good job keeping me playing….It’s not about the numbers, it’s just about playing every day.”

A look at Torres’ numbers, however, clearly reveals something was amiss.  Torres hit .281/.387/.425 over 359 plate appearances in the first half of the season, and was performing well enough to earn a starting nod as the American League’s second baseman in the All-Star Game.  Once the All-Star break was over, however, Torres hit only .223/.320/.339 over his final 269 PA of the regular season.  He seemed to rediscover his stroke over Detroit’s first seven postseason games, but an 0-for-6 showing in yesterday’s 15-inning marathon with the Mariners dropped Torres’ playoff slash line to .235/.316/.382 over 38 PA.

Torres’ slide mirrored the Tigers’ own fortunes.  One of baseball’s better clubs for much of the season, Detroit went 9-22 over its last 31 games and barely squeaked into the postseason field in the final AL wild card slot.  If the Tigers had retained their healthy AL Central lead, Torres likely would’ve gotten more opportunity to rest down the stretch, and yet the mutual struggles of player and team led to the Tigers led to an unfortunate Catch-22 situation.  The Tigers still needed Torres in the lineup as much as possible as their top-choice second baseman, yet Torres’ struggles kept adding to the team’s woes (though Torres was far from the only Detroit player to under-perform in September).

The injury adds context to Torres’ second-half decline, and adds a wrinkle to his upcoming free agent market.  Firstly, sports hernia surgeries usually take at least two months of recovery time and closer to 12 weeks on the longer end, so the procedure shouldn’t impact his readiness for the start of Spring Training.  Interested suitors might now wait until Torres is fully recovered before diving too deeply into his market, so it is possible he might not sign until late December or early January.

For the season as a whole, Torres hit .256/.358/.387 with 16 homers over 628 PA, with below-average glovework (though better public defensive metrics than his 2024 work as the Yankees’ second baseman).  This works out to 2.6 fWAR, which was still eighth-best among all second baseman in 2025.  Looking at the free agent second base market, Torres is still arguably the best option available, since Jorge Polanco’s time at second base was also impacted by injury.

Torres’ reps at Octagon will clearly make the case that their client’s first-half performance is a better reflection of what a healthy Torres can bring.  Detroit signed Torres to a one-year, $15MM contract last winter that was essentially a pillow deal for the second baseman, as he was looking a shorter-term deal and a better platform year in 2025 that would allow him to re-enter the market with a stronger set of numbers.  Torres hit .257/.330/.378 with 15 homers over 665 PA (with a 105 wRC+ and 1.8 fWAR) for New York in 2024, so while he did improve in Detroit, it wasn’t the leap ahead he was hoping to achieve.