NEW YORK – Yankees second baseman Gleyber Torres was removed Friday night from an 8-5 loss to Toronto by manager Aaron Boone for not hustling, sending a message to the clubhouse of a team that has struggled since mid-June.
Torres did not run hard out of the batter’s box on his 110.7 mph drive off the left-field wall in the second inning, thinking it was a home run, and reached only first base with a single. That cost the Yankees a run when he was thrown out at the plate trying to score on Anthony Volpe’s two-out double into the left-field corner.
Boone and Torres had a discussion on the dugout steps before the fourth inning as Torres tried to persuade the manager to keep him in the game. Oswaldo Cabrera took over at second base.
“I just felt like I needed to 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’ve got to move on. He had I have spoken and hopefully this is a great learning moment for all of us.”
Torres was apologetic when speaking with media after the game.
“I think he did the right thing, especially in the moment,” Torres said of Boone. “I feel really sorry for whatever I (did) tonight, especially for the fans and also for my teammates. I’m a human being and I make an error and I feel like for whatever I do tonight, I’m going to learn a lot.”
Yankees captain Aaron Judge said Boone’s message was received.
“If you’re not doing your job, you’re going to be out of there,” Judge said. “He’s made that clear to us and definitely made it clear today. If I know Gleyber, something like this ain’t going to happen again. He takes pride in his work, in his craft and he’s definitely not happy about what happened.”
A 27-year-old in his seventh major league season, Torres was an All-Star in 2018 and ’19 but has struggled since. He is batting .233 with 10 homers and 42 RBIs, raising his average by hitting .250 in July.
Boone’s exchange with Torres was captured by a YES Network camera.
“Maybe it looked bad, but, it was a conversation, just tried to understand what happened in the moment,” Torres said. “I have to be more mature in that situation and just play hard.”
Boone said Torres will be in the lineup Saturday. He said he allowed Torres to play the field in the third inning because he didn’t want to surprise Cabrera with a quick entry to the game.
Boone defended his decisions not to pull other players who haven’t hustled.
“Everyone’s going to make judgments on this guy, that guy. 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,” Boone said. “I think it’s one of the more overrated things defining a player that plays hard or not, is that part of it. It is a important part of it, but, yeah, 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.”
Judge credited Torres with owning up to his mistake, returning to the dugout to cheer for his teammates with the Yankees trailing and for speaking with reporters to admit he was at fault.
“It speaks volumes of the type of guy he is deep down.” Judge said. “He could have ran and hid and saw you guys tomorrow, but he was out there front and center.”
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