Jun 12, 2024; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; New York Yankees second baseman Gleyber Torres (25) celebrates while running the bases after hitting a three run home run against the Kansas City Royals in the seventh inning at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports / Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
For some odd, sick reason, Gleyber Torres is a polarizing player among New York Yankees fans. But there’s nothing about him that’s polarizing. He’s an underwhelming baseball player who rarely ever delivers when you need him to. He often disappoints. We’re not sure why this isn’t a more agreed upon topic. It’s probably because social media has allowed teenagers to have amplified opinions about topics they know nothing about.
Such is life. We’ll keep arguing this topic until Torres is gone. He’s set to hit free agency after this season, which was always the natural, expected expiration date of his relationship with the Yankees. But the fact of the matter is that the Yankees can’t wait that long. Torres needs to be gone by the trade deadline at the absolute latest. And they have nobody to blame but themselves, dating back to 2020.
There’s no reason for Yankees fans to panic about the state of the team right now. Though they’re not playing well, they still have 52 wins and have consistently been a top-three team all year. These difficult stretches happen.
In some ways, yes, the Yankees have been “exposed.” They lack depth and need to re-work their bullpen. All of that is within their control.
So is parting with Torres, who refuses to control what he can control. We’d like to reiterate: this is not a hit piece on Torres. What’s done is done. We hope he’s OK mentally and physically. But he doesn’t deserve a spot on this roster. There’s no place for his declining abilities and consistent lack of effort. He has given these storylines life. We have not opted to randomly write about them because we are bored.
Yankees leave themselves no choice but to make drastic Gleyber Torres decision
Torres got the bad vibes started right off the bat on Tuesday when he struck out in weak fashion with the bases loaded and nobody out in the first inning. That’s how he rewarded manager Aaron Boone for batting him cleanup (great work, Aaron!). In case you forgot, he did almost the same exact thing in Fenway last weekend: with the bases loaded and nobody out, Torres got ahead in the count 3-0, then watched two strikes right down the pipe before swinging at strike three in the other batter’s box to completely destroy the momentum. The Yankees scored no runs that inning and eventually lost the game 9-3 (it was 4-3 when Torres was at bat in the seventh).
Later in Tuesday’s game, Torres made an error (his 12th of the season) that extended the inning and contributed to three more Mets runs. The Yankees ended up losing 9-7. Torres went 0-for-4 (0-for-2 with RISP) with a walk and two strikeouts.
Enough is enough. He’s 2 for his last 22 — over his last 28 days, he’s batting .195. He leads all second basemen in MLB in errors. He’s hitting .215 with a .333 slugging percentage on the season. He’s recorded maybe two meaningful hits all year.
But you know what? Maybe we’d be able to overlook all of that if Torres didn’t do this in the eighth inning, right after Aaron Judge hit a potentially game-shifting grand slam to bring the Yankees within two runs.
This is a professional athlete we’re supposed to take seriously? That’s not even meant to be disrespectful. The YES postgame ripped into Torres for his lack of effort — which is nothing new. He’s done this countless times before, only for Boone to pretend like he disciplined Torres. He never does. Why do you think it’s persisted this long? Joel Sherman of the New York Post even asked Boone after the loss to the Mets if there was any consideration of benching Torres for his horrible play and lack of effort to boot. This is well beyond a contentious topic at this point.
Torres is lackadaisical on the defensive side of the ball, as evidenced by his inability to find any sort of consistency in his seventh MLB season. Seven seasons! And he’s only gotten worse.
But like we said, this is the Yankees’ doing. They called him out in 2020 for arriving to summer camp (after COVID delayed the season) out of shape, and since then it’s been (mostly) downhill, outside of Torres fooling everyone with a “resurgent” 2023 campaign (an 82-80 season in which almost no games mattered after the All-Star break).
They floated him in trade rumors and callously risked that effort potentially affecting his mental state (it did, and it helped derail the 2022 season). They’ve publicly stated they need more out of him, knowing deep down that would only force Torres to retreat rather than respond. After all of that evidence, the Yankees rode the ice cold hand, wagering one last time on Torres’ contract year being a motivator for the former All-Star.
He’s responded in the worst way imaginable. He’s costing the Yankees dearly during this difficult stretch of baseball, and he’s costing himself millions in the process. The opportunity to trade him for actual value sailed long ago, but that shouldn’t even be a concern at the moment.
Torres is a sunk cost. Almost anybody would be more inspiring/effective than him at second base at this point. The Yankees just need something out of the position, and they’re getting far less than that, especially knowing what Torres was once capable of. Yes, unfortunately, Torres being unable to resdiscover his form and uncover his potential does indeed make his performance that much worse.
There’s no more time to waste, though. The Yankees just made drastic moves to improve their bullpen, which will be a key area of the roster that needs to be revamped to make a deep playoff run. Same goes for the infield. And it starts with Torres at second base. He’s not a championship player, and he’s only going to keep holding the Yankees back from their true capabilities.
It’s become harder and harder to unsee that, and even if you’ve historically disagreed, it’s almost impossible to ignore right now.