In a surprise to some, the Cardinals added 28-year-old Bryan Torres to the 40 man roster on November 6th. This predated the 40-man deadline by a couple weeks, because unlike Cooper Hjerpe, Leonardo Bernal,
and company, Torres had spent seven seasons in the minors, and thus would have qualified for free agency. They added him so that he could stay in the organization. It is, in my opinion, a big sign that the Cardinals may think there’s a future with Torres, most likely as a bench player.
If you’re not deep into following the minor leagues, you probably don’t know who this is. This is normal. Torres is typically not a player whose name you ever need to learn. In fact, there’s a comparable player to him on the Memphis roster. Matt Lloyd, who will 30 next March, was signed out of independent ball last season, played for Springfield in 2024 and for Memphis in 2025. He was also an above average hitter at both levels. Torres is a year younger, but everything in the previous two sentences equally applies to Torres. And yet Lloyd would almost certainly not be added to the 40 man in a comparable position.
So who is Bryan Torres?
Torres attended Acadamia Cristiana Elohim in Caguas, Puerto Rico, but the 2015 MLB draft came and his name went uncalled. He went to a tryout for the Brewers, was asked if he could catch, and wanting to get signed, he said yes. So he started as a catcher in the Brewers system. Somewhat unusually, he was sent to the Dominican Summer League.
He spent three seasons there, not typically a great sign. In his defense, he signed fairly late in the 2015 season, and only appeared in eight games, none as catcher. It wasn’t necessarily because of his bat. His bat was nothing great, but he did hit. He had a 112 wRC+ in 2016 with more walks than strikeouts. In 2017, he had a 122 wRC+ and had a minuscule 3.8 K%. He had zero power though either season. In 2018, he skipped what is now known as the complex league for a team in the Pioneer League (which doesn’t exist anymore).
This showed some faith in him, although he was 20 at that point. He was essentially moved to 1B and he didn’t hit at all. He continued to not strike out, but he also didn’t walk and had no power once again. He repeated the Pioneer League in 2019 and this time his walks matched his strikeouts and he had a slightly above average hitting line. He also played more games at 3B than 1B.
Then the San Francisco Giants selected him in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 draft in December of 2019. Then you know what happened next. After the missing season, the Giants catapulted the now 23-year-old all the way to AA. Not only did they do that, he became kind of the backup catcher. So he was catching games again. He also introduced 2B to his arsenal of positions. He played 18 games at 2B and 21 at catcher. This is by the way all based upon the fact that he just said he could play catcher to get signed.
The Giants chose not to bring him back and he was eligible for free agency at 24-years-old back in the 2021-2022 offseason. He went to go play winter ball in Puerto Rico, and then nobody called, so he took the only route he could and signed with an independent team for the 2022 season. He batted .374 that season and yet still no team called to sign him.
Wanting desperately to get a chance to play in the major leagues, he searched for a way to improve and get noticed and he found it on the basepaths. He batted .370 in 2023, improved his slugging from .489 to .540, and improved his OBP from .435 to .464. He also stole 71 bases in 91 games, an improvement from the still impressive 22 stolen bases. More impressively, he got caught stealing 7 times in 2022 and only 11 times in 2023. That’s a really good success rate.
The Cardinals took notice finally. At a very low cost of $15,000 – $12,500 of which was sent to the Indy league – the Cardinals signed Torres in late September of 2023, fearing the rules would change since the partnership agreement between independent ball and the MLB was expiring after 2023. Lloyd was also signed in this period. Torres again played winter ball in Puerto Rico after the season and in fact Yadier Molina was his manager, one of his baseball idols whom he looked to when he was trying to play catcher.
And I don’t necessarily think the Cardinals had any future plans for him at this point. It was more likely a signing because he had shown versatility, that had room on the roster for him, and why not. But since then, Torres has really done nothing but hit. At the age of 26 in 2024, Torres batted .331 with a 13.1 BB%, not many more strikeouts, and a 136 wRC+. This past season at Memphis, Torres had a .328 average with a 16.9 BB%, just a 13.8 K%, and a 146 wRC+.
There are other reasons for optimism. Torres has not really shown power anywhere he’s been – probably the #1 thing that’s held him back from being in the majors already. He had just a .085 ISO in Springfield, a very easy place to have power. That’s why he was never promoted. But in Memphis, he showed just enough power to dream on him – a .136 ISO and 9 homers in 104 games. He also significantly improved his plate discipline numbers, which was not easy considering the standard he set at Springfield – he walked more at Memphis despite 114 less PAs and he only struck out 13.8% of the time.
He had slowly built up his versatility by the time he reached the Cardinals organization – he started as a catcher, then first base, then some third base, then some second base. The independent team primarily used him in CF and that’s exactly where he was used on the Springfield team for 86 games. He didn’t really play CF for Memphis, but he was always on a team that either had Michael Siani or Nathan Church, so it’s sort of difficult to know if he can actually play CF or not. Instead, he played most of his games at 2B, but still ended up playing at least 20 games in both corner outfield spots.
Just about the only position it seems he cannot play is SS, of which he’s played one total game there across all levels. It was not a start either. According to Baseball Reference, he has played 43 games at 1B, 271 games at 2B, 51 games at 3B, 82 games at catcher, 254 games in CF, 47 games in LF, and 42 games in RF. Given the past few years of experience, I can think you can reliably assume he can capably play the corner outfield spots and 2B at the least and he should be able to handle center if needed, though of course he is still likely to run into Church and/or Victor Scott. It could be a priority thing, but pretty sure they don’t believe he’s as good a defender as those two in CF.
Did the stolen bases come with him from independent ball? Well, not 71 stolen bases in 91 games, but yes he still stole bases. He stole 33 for Springfield and 26 for Memphis. Those are similar rates because he actually played a lot less in Memphis, over 100 PAs less. He got caught just 6 times in Memphis as well.
Torres is a really fun player. It’s easy enough to see why he was protected. He doesn’t strike out, he takes his walks, he can play just about everywhere, and he’s a threat on the basepaths. Power is the big question. Maybe the only question. Last year was the very first time he has ever had higher than a .100 ISO in the minors. I cannot emphasize enough how rare it is for a player with Torres’ power to actually be able to hit in the major leagues. Like if you’ve been reading this wondering how he hasn’t gotten a shot yet, that is the reason. He hasn‘t shown even passable power until this past season.
But I mean…if his numbers translate even remotely and he is actually good on defense… forget bench player, maybe he can be a starter. This is coming from the anti-old guy doing well in the high minors. I’m always a skeptic when a 26-year-old or 27-year-old has good numbers in AAA. It happens all the time. John Nogowski, Rangel Ravelo, Luken Baker I mean I’m only naming 1B, but I have never believed in those players. But it’s really difficult to look at those numbers, see how good his plate discipline is – and it’s always been good; see how good his ability to make contact is – and it’s always been good too; and see how good his contact quality appears to be if BABIP is anything to judge – and yes he’s had high BABIPs since 2021.; and not come to the conclusion that maybe he can be an average hitter with above average defense.
But in the meantime, I wouldn’t expect that at all. Just hope that he can get his major league call-up. He’s certainly had a longer journey than most MLBers to see that happen. And then hope for a bench player. That feels achievable.
