MINNEAPOLIS — The phone call came in early December, in the dead of baseball’s off-season, when players are on vacation and recovering from the grueling season. Yankees infielder Gleyber Torres, though, was ready to start training.

The Yankees’ loss to the Boston Red Sox in the first round of the 2018 playoffs was bothering Torres. As did his miscues, particularly on defense at second base and shortstop, during his rookie season. So he called Carlos Mendoza, the team’s infield instructor, and told him he wanted to start working at the Yankees’ spring training complex in Tampa, Fla., where Torres lives in the off-season.

“I know it’s early, but I just want to prepare,” Torres, 22, told Mendoza, who also lives in Tampa. “I just want to clean everything up.”

Ten months later, as he enjoyed the Yankees’ dismantling of the Minnesota Twins during a raucous clubhouse celebration on Monday, Torres recalled what had helped him propel his team to the American League Championship Series: All of those ground balls and all of those swings on a minor league field, five days a week beginning in early December, two months before spring training began.