Shortly after position players reported for Yankees spring training in mid-February, second baseman Gleyber Torres did not mention specific individual goals for 2024.

However, he did articulate a career.

“I want to be a Yankee for life,” said Torres, a two-time All-Star who is entering the final year of his contract.

Torres seemed to intuitively know this was a gamble for several reasons, not the least of which was that virtually everyone knew the Yankees’ first, second and third priorities for the next offseason, even in the spring, would be again. signing of Juan Soto.

And even though Torres had made two All-Star teams with the Yankees, the most recent of which came in 2019.

But Torres wanted to at least make the Yankees think about it carefully.

Midway through this season, it seemed like a no-brainer for the organization to have Torres seek a free agent contract elsewhere.

But Torres’ strong second-half performance, which has carried into the postseason, while not guaranteeing a big-money offer from the Yankees, at least puts things in the realm of the 27-year-old’s potential return. the club in 2025 and beyond.

“I think we’re looking at a good player who’s in the prime of his career and who’s gotten things going in the last few months,” Aaron Boone said Tuesday before his team looked to take a two-games-to-nil lead. over the Guardians in the American League Championship Series. “I feel like he’s in a really good place.”

That wasn’t the case for the first part of the season.

Torres hit .231 with eight home runs, 35 RBIs and a .654 OPS in 93 games in the first half, but hit .293 with seven home runs, 28 RBIs and a .780 OPS in 61 games in the second half of the season.

Included in the latter totals is the extremely consistent work Torres put in over the final 39 games of the regular season after being permanently moved to leadoff. In that role, Torres hit .313/.386/.454 with five home runs, eight doubles, 18 RBIs, 20 walks and 31 runs.

In the first five games of the postseason, Torres reached base in 10 of his 25 at-bats (four hits, six walks) and scored five of the Yankees’ 19 runs in those games.

“The swing feels good,” Torres said before Tuesday’s game. “(I made) a lot of adjustments, a lot of work before the game, and when I went to home plate I didn’t think too much. Just trust myself and try to do my job.”

Torres traced much of his success to the second half of the work he did in Tampa — where he lives during the offseason — during the All-Star break at a facility he has there with one of his best friends, Gio Urshela, a former Yankees teammate.

“He’s known me really well for years, and he said a few things, like I roll a lot, I hit (too) many ground balls to short and third,” Torres said of Urshela. “Actually, if I’m good, I’ll hit it to the opposite field.”

Torres said in the spring he was thinking 2024 could be his last season in pinstripes, though he quickly added he didn’t think that caused his rocky start. However, it was something he thought about in the spring, largely because he was constantly asked about it.

“I don’t want to lie, I didn’t want to talk too much about freedom of choice. I just wanted to play the season,” Torres said. “During the season it was a struggle. I don’t want to say that I have difficulty because I think too much about freedom of choice. It’s like I tried to do the right thing, but nothing happened.”

He continued: “Sure, sometimes I think: if I don’t do it (well), maybe I won’t sign here, but I’ll go to another place. But I felt (no) pressure at that moment. I just felt pressure on myself to do the right thing, because I’ve been playing well and decently for the last two years, and this year is one of the most important years for my career, and I (didn’t play well). Definitely, I felt really (frustrated) with myself.

Torres also credited Boone with pumping him up publicly and privately, feeling a turnaround was inevitable, and the manager backed that up by continuing to play second base (Boone briefly benched Torres in early August due to a lack of crowds in a game against the blue jays).

“I really appreciate Boonie because in the (worst) problems I have, they always keep me in the lineup and help me believe in myself,” Torres said. “That’s the right thing to do. If your entire organization believes in you, they don’t trade you, they keep you and they show you the love, then you have to figure out a way to get better and help the team.”