Detroit Tigers second baseman Gleyber Torres said the hernia he played through in the second half of the 2025 season significantly impacted his performance, shedding light on his late-year decline and offseason decision to accept a qualifying offer.
“A lot,” Torres said when asked how much the pain affected him, as reported by Evan Woodbury of MLive. “I couldn’t reach some pitches, couldn’t make really good swings. I’m trying. I’m a professional. When you play this sport, you have to play with pain.
“Personally, I didn’t feel good about my second half. If I step on the field, I have to do better. So I’m really, really proud of the organization giving me the opportunity, the qualifying offer. It’s not an easy offer, that type of money for one year. It’s another year to prove myself, get better and help the team.”
Torres accepted Detroit’s one-year, $22 million qualifying offer rather than pursue a multiyear deal in free agency. Since the system began in 2012, only 14 of 144 players had accepted such offers before this winter. Torres became one of four to do so this year.
At the All-Star break, Torres owned an .812 OPS with 51 walks and 46 strikeouts across 359 plate appearances, earning his first All-Star nod since 2019. In the second half, his OPS dropped to .659 over 269 plate appearances as the injury worsened.
He said he told manager A.J. Hinch before a late-season game that he wanted to continue playing. Trainers managed the injury daily.
“I applaud him for trying to play through the injury,” Hinch said. “It’s more painful than he wants you to know or what he wanted his teammates to know, but he shared a lot of that with me.”
Following surgery, Torres said he could not walk on his own for weeks.
“My wife and my family helped me walk,” he said. “I had surgery on Friday, so Monday I started doing rehab.”
By December, he resumed swinging: “That’s when I told myself I’m good,” he said.
