Gleyber Torres is ready for what could be his final playoffs with the Yankees

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

He admitted Friday that he has considered the possibility that this could be his last October as a Yankee, with free agency looming after the playoffs.

“Sometimes I think about it, I’m not going to lie,” Torres said before taking the lead again at the Stadium against the Pirates. “The future is hard to predict and I don’t know what will happen after the postseason. I’m trying to enjoy everything with my teammates and we still have more playoffs ahead of us.”

Torres’ up-and-down season saw an upswing, at least at the plate, as he got off to a respectable start Friday with five extra-base hits in his last 13 games as part of a second half in which the second baseman scored. 782 OPS in 61 games after July 13th.

“It’s really hard to explain how I started and struggled in the first few months,” Torres said. “It was really horrible and frustrating. I went there every day [batting] Cage, do the right thing and then go 0-for-4 with errors and strikeouts. It’s good that everyone else raked, but after that [All-Star] Break, I played better.”

There were still too many mental errors and a lack of rushing plays, but Aaron Boone stuck with Torres at the top of the lineup and in the middle of the infield.

“These playoffs are going to be really special,” Torres said. “I learned a lot this year and we were able to celebrate [Thursday].”

Torres lamented that the Yankees couldn’t do that a year ago, when he had a solid season at the helm but the team failed to make 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 that for granted. Then we got hit in the face last year.”

So this time he is enjoying the ride.

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

However, amidst this solid performance, there were also mistakes that have hurt Torres at times throughout his career.

He has been criticized for his lax approach to pop-ups and occasionally commits a baserun error.

It was this type of play that most recently cost the Yankees victory on Tuesday, when Torres was ejected between third and home with one run behind on a base hit by Juan Soto to get the team out of a rally with Aaron Judge on deck against the Yankees drive away orioles.

Even though the Yankees had won the AL East, they were still trying to secure the best record in the American League on Friday, which would at least give them home-field advantage through the ALCS, so this game could still haunt them.

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