Yankees announced that Torreyes had beaten Pete Kozma as the team's backup infielder, and that he would see time at second base, shortstop, and third base throughout the season. Only 23 years old at the time, Torreyes was the second-youngest player on the team, behind the 21-year-old Luis Severino, and quickly established himself as a reliable hitter on the team. While the three other bench players had a combined two singles in 23 at-bats by mid-April, Torreyes started the season batting .667 with a double, a triple, and two RBIs. He played only sparingly for most of the summer, with 85 plate appearances in the first 120 games of the season, but received more starting opportunities by mid-August, at one point going 14-for-26 in a two-week span. Torreyes scored his first major league home run on August 20, a solo shot in a 7–0 win over the Angels. He appeared in a total of 72 games for the Yankees in 2016, batting .258 with 12 RBIs and 20 runs. With Didi Gregorius sidelined due to a shoulder injury in the preseason, Torreyes was called upon to serve as the Yankees' opening day shortstop for the start of the 2017 season. On April 4, he hit the team's first home run of the year, a two-run shot off of Jake Odorizzi of the Tampa Bay Rays. When Gregorius returned from the injury, Torreyes continued to fill in at other positions, spending some time at third base and taking over for Starlin Castro both times that the other infielder went on the disabled list with a hamstring injury. Torreyes saw the most major league playing time in 2017, batting .292 with three home runs and 36 RBIs in 108 games and 336 plate appearances. Torreyes' performance as a utility player in 2017 impressed manager Aaron Boone, who intended to use the player throughout the 2018 season as a temporary replacement for players who were struggling. On May 26, however, first baseman Greg Bird returned to the lineup after recovering from a preseason ankle surgery, and in order to clear room for him on the roster, Torreyes was optioned to the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. Torreyes kept an optimistic attitude towards being sent to the minors, even when he missed most of the month of July to help his wife through an unspecified medical issue. He spent most of the season with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, but