NEW YORK — New York Yankees second baseman Gleyber Torres said he thought he hit a home run when he lined a 110.7 mph ball off the left-field wall in the second inning of Friday’s 8-5 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays. It would have been a home run in Toronto, according to Statcast; in New York, however, Torres stayed at first base with a long single.
Torres might have had a chance to double if he had run out of the box, but he didn’t. He stood at home plate, admiring the flight path until he saw the ball bounce inches off the wall. Two batters later, Anthony Volpe doubled down the left-field line. Torres, who came from first base instead of second, was sent home by third base coach Luis Rojas, but was thrown out of the plate a few feet to end the inning.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone left Torres on defense in the third inning because he “didn’t want to get (Oswaldo) Cabrera so quick.” Cabrera took over second base for Torres in the fourth inning, as Torres was benched for not getting out of the box quickly on his single.
“I just felt like I had to (bench Torres) in that spot,” Boone said. “I’m not going to go too far down the rabbit hole and make a judgment on that. I just felt like — at that point — I felt like I had to do that. It’s that simple. It is what it is. It’s over. We have to move on. He and I have talked. Hopefully this is a great learning experience for all of us.”
Torres said he agreed with Boone’s decision to bench him, though he said he was “a little” surprised he was pulled from the game. YES Network showed Torres and Boone talking in the dugout, with the manager telling his second baseman, “I pulled you from the game.”
Gleyber Torres and Aaron Boone chat in the dugout before being pulled from tonight’s game. photo.twitter.com/LpTNMRg7NH
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) August 3, 2024
“I have to get better,” Torres said. “And I really feel sorry for whatever I do (Friday), especially for the fans and also for my teammates. I’m human. I made a mistake and I feel like whatever I do (Friday), I’m going to learn a lot. I just want to compete with my teammates. I want to play great and be 100 percent for my team.”
Torres isn’t the only Yankee who doesn’t run hard out of the batter’s box, but he is the only one who has been benched this season for not running hard. Alex Verdugo hit a 373-foot single in Boston last Saturday after what he thought was a home run. Verdugo stared at the ball for seconds before running and stopping on the first base hit. Earlier this season, DJ LeMahieu failed to run hard out of the batter’s box on a ground ball, but Boone said the third baseman “had to fight to get into good running form.”
There are numerous instances of former Yankees third baseman Josh Donaldson pimping singles (or flyouts) that he thought were home runs, including in the playoffs. Donaldson was never benched for his baserunning miscues. Boone would not elaborate on what made Torres’ gaffe boil over, while others who, like Torres, repeatedly don’t hustle are given a free pass.
“Everybody’s going to judge this guy or that guy,” Boone said. “The reality is I have a lot of grace because a lot of people don’t know the whole story of every situation and what guys are dealing with. I think that’s one of the most overrated things: defining a player as playing hard or not. It’s a big part of it, but we can go back and take that one out, why didn’t you take that one out? The reality is those guys, including Gleyber, are playing their asses off. I don’t have a problem with that. I felt like I had to do it at this time, this time. That’s it. I’ve said everything I need to say and I’ve been pretty clear.”
When asked if Boone had previously talked to him about not hustling, Torres said, “Not necessarily.” He said he doesn’t think he’ll get picked and that he needs to show more maturity. Torres couldn’t say whether he would have hit a double if he had sprinted out of the box, but he acknowledged that he cost the Yankees a run because he wasn’t on second base when Volpe doubled.
The plan is for Torres to play Saturday afternoon. Yankees captain Aaron Judge thought Boone’s benching of Torres sent a message to the locker room that if they don’t do their job, they’ll be replaced.
“He’s absolutely not happy with what happened,” Judge said. “I bet the rest of his career nothing like that happens again.”
Torres was benched in June after failing to field a weakly hit ground ball against the New York Mets. Boone called Torres’s benching a “reset” at the time because he was struggling offensively. But the one thing that caught Boone’s attention was Torres’ lack of rush. Since Boone benched Torres in late June, the second baseman has been one of the team’s best hitters with a 120 wRC+.
The Yankees believe Torres, who is a free agent at the end of the season, will put this incident behind him.
“He’s a tough kid and he goes out there and keeps doing his job, and his teammates keep supporting him,” Judge said. “You see him come back and not hide from the camera and not hide from anybody, not hide from his mistakes; he was just there. That says a lot about the type of person he is.”
(Photo: Frank Franklin / Associated Press)
