When Gleyber Torres hit free agency for the first time after spending the first seven years of his MLB career with the New York Yankees, he had no shortage of suitors. Ultimately, it was the Detroit Tigers who ultimately won him over – not only because they were a young, competitive team on the rise or because they were willing to offer him the one-year contract he was seeking, but also because they had some special ambassadors who helped seal the deal.
A native of Venezuela, Torres grew up idolizing a certain Venezuelan baseball legend by the name of Miguel Cabrera. A future Hall of Famer whose name is, in many ways, synonymous with Tigers baseball, Cabrera spent 16 of his 21 MLB seasons in Detroit.
Torres already got the chance to play alongside his idol when he and Cabrera were teammates at the 2023 World Baseball Classic; now, he will get the chance to play for the same MLB club where Cabrera became a legend.
“Since 2018, when I came to the big leagues, I started getting a really good relationship with him,” Torres said (via Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press). “When we played against each other during the season, he always played around with me and would always tell me, ‘Come to Detroit, and you’re going to see a really good team.’ He would always just laugh.”
Cabrera retired after the 2023 season and is currently a special assistant in the Tigers’ front office. Torres said that Cabrera called to congratulate him on his one-year, $15 million contract for 2025.
Gleyber Torres reveals Miguel Cabrera, Gio Urshela influenced his decision to sign with Tigers in free agency
Cabrera isn’t the only connection Torres has to the Tigers organization. In fact, when the conversations with Detroit started to get serious, Torres reached out to another old friend: Gio Urshela.
Torres and Urshela were teammates on the Yankees from 2019-21 and remain close friends. Despite spending only a few months with the Tigers before he was cut from the team in mid-August, Urshela had nothing but good things to say to Torres about the organization.
Some words of encouragement from Urshela and a warm welcome from Cabrera were enough to make Torres feel confident that Detroit is where he belongs next season; and Torres’ eagerness to bet on himself and help the club win was enough to make the Tigers confident in signing him. Sometimes, it really is about who you know.
