NEW YORK — New York Yankees second baseman Gleyber Torres said he thought he hit a home run when he laced a 110.7 mph line drive off the left-field wall in the second inning of Friday’s 8-5 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays. According to Statcast, it would have been a home run in Toronto; however, in New York, Torres was left standing on first base with a long single.
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Torres may have had a chance for a double if he would’ve run out of the box, but he didn’t. He stood at home plate admiring the flight path until he saw the ball ricochet inches from going over the wall. Two batters later, Anthony Volpe lined a double down the left-field line. Torres, motoring from first base instead of second, was waved home by third base coach Luis Rojas but was thrown out at the plate by several feet to end the inning.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone left Torres on the field in the top of the third to play defense because he “didn’t want to ambush (Oswaldo) Cabrera that quickly.” Cabrera took over at second base for Torres in the top of the fourth, as the latter was benched for not hustling out of the box on his single.
“I just felt like I needed to (bench Torres) in that spot,” Boone said. “I’m not going to get too down the rabbit hole of making judgments on this one. I just felt like — in that moment — I felt like I needed to do that. Simple as that. It is what it is. It’s over with. We got to move on. He and I have spoken. Hopefully, this is a great learning moment for all of us.”
Torres said he agreed with Boone’s decision to bench him, even though he said he was “a little bit” surprised that he was pulled from the game. YES Network showed Torres and Boone talking in the dugout, the manager telling his second baseman, “I pulled you out of the game.”
Gleyber Torres and Aaron Boone engage in a discussion in the dugout before being taken out of tonight's game. pic.twitter.com/LpTNMRg7NH
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) August 3, 2024
“I have to get better,” Torres said. “And I feel really sorry for whatever I do (Friday), especially for the fans and also for my teammates. I’m a human being. I made an error 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.”
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Torres isn’t the only Yankee to not hustle out of the batter’s box, but he is the only one who’s been benched this season for not running hard. Alex Verdugo hit a 373-foot single last Saturday in Boston after he thought he hit a home run. Verdugo stared at the ball for seconds before running and stopping at first. 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 was “battling to get into a good running form.”
There are countless examples of former Yankees third baseman Josh Donaldson pimping singles (or flyouts) he thought were home runs, including in the playoffs. Donaldson was never benched for his base-running miscues. Boone would not elaborate on what made Torres’ blunder the boiling point while others, who like Torres are repeat offenders of not hustling, get a pass.
“Everyone’s going to make judgments on this guy, that guy,” Boone said. “The reality is, I have a ton of grace because a lot of people don’t know the whole story on every situation and what guys are dealing with. I think it’s one of the more overrated things — defining a player who plays hard or not. It is an important part of it, but we can go back and pull this one, why didn’t you pull on this one? The reality is, those guys, including Gleyber, play their asses off. I don’t have any issue with that. I felt like in this moment, this time, I needed to do this. That’s it. I’ve said everything I want to say and I’ve been pretty clear.”
When asked if Boone previously talked to him about not hustling, Torres said, “not necessarily.” He said he doesn’t think he’s being singled out, and he needs to display more maturity. Torres couldn’t say whether he could have had a double if he sprinted out of the box, but he acknowledged he cost the Yankees a run because he wasn’t on second base when Volpe hit his double.
The plan is for Torres to play in Saturday afternoon’s game. Yankees captain Aaron Judge thought Boone benching Torres sent a message to the clubhouse that if they’re not doing their job, they’re going to get replaced.
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“He’s definitely not happy about what happened,” Judge said. “I bet you the rest of his career, something like this ain’t gonna happen again.”
Torres was benched in June after he failed to hustle on a weakly hit ground ball against the New York Mets. At the time, Boone called Torres’ benching a “reset” because he was struggling offensively. But the one thing that caught Boone’s attention was Torres’ lack of hustle. Since Boone benched Torres in late June, the second baseman has been one of the team’s best-performing hitters with his 120 wRC+.
The Yankees believe Torres, a free agent at season’s end, will put this incident behind him.
“He’s a tough kid and he’s gonna go out there and continue to keep doing his job, and his teammates are gonna keep supporting him,” Judge said. “You seeing him come back out and not hide from the camera and not hiding from anybody, not hiding from his mistakes; he was right there. So that speaks volumes of the type of person he is.”
(Photo: Frank Franklin / Associated Press)
Chris Kirschner is a staff writer for The Athletic covering the New York Yankees. He previously covered the Atlanta Hawks from 2018-2022 for The Athletic. Chris was named Georgia's Sportswriter of the Year in 2021 for his work covering the Hawks. Chris is a native of Bronx, NY. Follow Chris on Twitter @chriskirschner
