Getty Yankees manager Aaron Boone
It would be one thing if Yankees second baseman Gleyber Torres were simply locked in a bad stretch at the plate, struggling to hit in the kind of slump that strikes MLB ballplayers of every stripe over the course of a season. It’s another thing to see Torres flub plays in the field, and fail to hustle up the baseline on balls he puts into play, all while he is also mired in said slump.
It’s been a year-long slump, no less. Torres is batting .215 on the season, with a .294 on-base percentage and a .333 slugging mark. It’s been especially bad lately, as Torres has two hits in his last 29 at-bats, giving him a .069 batting average over his past nine games.
On Tuesday, in an ugly loss to the Mets, things bottomed out for Torres after he struck out with nobody out and the bases loaded in the first inning, failed to stay in front of a grounder with a runner on third and the infield playing in during the sixth inning, and did not hustle up the line on a ground ball he hit in the eighth inning.
After he briefly spoke with the media, the New York Post reported that Torres was asked to Yankees manager Aaron Boone’s office for a talk, presumably about his poor effort in the loss to the Mets.
Gleyber Torres: ‘Have to Figure Out How to Get Better’
According to the Post, Torres accepted blame for Tuesday night’s rocky game. And, really, for the difficult to start to the entire season, which has seen Torres lead MLB in errors by a second basemen, with 12, and has seen the Yankees as a whole rank 27th in combined batting average from its second basemen, at .209.
“I think it’s bad,” Torres said of his first half. “Have to figure out [how] to get better. I’m working really hard.”
Boone, for his part, walked a narrow line of calling out Torres’ obvious struggled without wanting to throw him entirely under the bus. He was not happy with the error on the ground ball in the sixth.
“That’s a play he should make,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said, per The Athletic. “In and around the last two weeks after the (dropped) popup, there’s been a lot of really good defense that no one ever asks about. It’s a play he has to make. It’s as simple as that. He didn’t make it tonight. It happens. We have to get him going.”
And speaking on the lack of hustle, Boone agreed that the optics are bad, but added that Torres has an injury problem.
“He and I have talked about that,” Boone said. “He has been dealing with a little bit of a groin (injury) that he came out for last week. There are certain spots where he’s careful with it. He’s obviously really important to what we’re doing, especially right now needing some meat in the middle of the lineup. We have to get him going.”
Yankees Could Make Infield Trade
Torres is only 27, and is in the midst of what should be a very important season for him. He is in the final year of arbitration, and signed a $14 million contract with the Yankees last offseason. New York resisted the temptation to give him a long-term extension in the offseason in a decision that would have sounded outlandish a few years back—Torres was an All-Star in 2018 and 2019, his first two big-league seasons, when he hit 62 combined home runs.
He has just seven this season. With the trade deadline approaching, there have been rumblings that Torres could be dealt or replaced by an outside infielder.
He needs to get better, and he knows it. Boone was there to tell him, though, just in case he forgot.
“It’s not easy,” Torres said. “I know the (other) guys can do a better job right now. I don’t do the adjustments. It is what it is. No excuses. I think the past season is already paid. I’m just focusing on this season and doing the adjustments. When I have the opportunity to play, I just try to do the right thing.”