Yankees activate Gleyber Torres, place Rougned Odor on paternity list

Just before the Yankees’ Wednesday night matchup in Texas against the Rangers, they announced a move that had been hinted at by skipper Aaron Boone the previous day: Gleyber Torres is back.

The Yankees shortstop was the lone player felled by the wave of nine COVID-19 positives last week and had to quarantine. It was an especially strange situation for Torres, who had not only taken the vaccine, but had also already had COVID late last year. Thankfully, he was asymptomatic and only had to quarantine for a little while before being cleared to return.

After getting off to a slow start, Torres had begun to heat up before this unexpected issue, batting .277/.346/.404 in the two weeks before his positive test. Boone happily penciled his name into the lineup tonight in the five-hole and back at shortstop. Gio Urshela will slide back over to his natural position of third base as Tyler Wade takes a seat.

Wade might have been on his way back to Triple-A to make room for Torres on the 26-man roster if not for Rougned Odor, whose wife just gave birth to a baby girl last night. So Odor will go onto the paternity list for a little bit and Wade will keep his spot for the time being.