Gleyber Torres admitted the obvious: He didn’t run hard out of the batter’s box, and manager Aaron Boone made the correct decision by benching him for most of Friday night’s 8-5 loss to the Blue Jays in The Bronx.
“I think he did the right thing, especially in the moment,” he said. “As a professional, you have to take the consequences.”
The second baseman only wound up with a single after his second-inning line drive hit the left-field fence, and he was later thrown out at the plate on Anthony Volpe’s double.
He would have obviously scored had he been on second base.
“For one second, I thought it was a homer. Unfortunately, it [was] just a single,” Torres said. “I have to get better. I feel really sorry for whatever I [did] tonight, especially for the fans and also for my teammates.”
Boone lifted Torres after three innings, keeping him in initially after the lack of hustle.
Boone’s reasoning was he wanted to give Oswaldo Cabrera time to prepare to enter the game.
“I just felt like in that moment I felt like I needed to do that. Simple as that,” said Boone, who declined to offer any specifics on the decision or the conversation he had with Torres when he took him out. “Hopefully this is a great learning moment for all of us.”
Torres will start on Saturday, according to Boone.
Captain Aaron Judge spoke to Torres, but didn’t want to share those specifics, either.
“Getting pulled in a game like that and for Gleyber to come back out, to be there on the front step, be at the fence cheering the guys on, speaks volumes of the type of guy he is deep down,” Judge said. “That’s a tough situation. … He could’ve ran and hid, saw you guys tomorrow. He was out there front and center.”
Asked about disciplining Torres for not running hard when other players have not been similarly punished for similar infractions, the Yankees manager grew testy.
“Everybody is going to make judgements on this guy, that guy. The reality is I have a ton of grace,” Boone said. “A lot of people don’t know the whole story on every situation and what guys are dealing with, and I think it’s one of the more overrated things – defining a player who plays hard or not.”
Judge believes a message was sent to everyone on the team.
“If you’re not doing your job, you’re going to be out of there,” the slugging outfielder said.
Lack of hustle is something that Torres has become somewhat known for.
During the Subway Series on June 26 against the Mets, Torres failed to run out a softly hit ground ball in the eighth inning that might have been a close play if he had run hard.
After the game, Torres blamed a groin that had forced him from a game the previous week and which grew tight.
Boone called Torres into his office after the loss and talked with the 27-year-old.
He was benched for the next few games, which Boone said at the time was partly about his subpar performance and partly a disciplinary measure.
It has been a shaky season for Torres, a pending free agent.
He’s slashing just .233/.308/.357 with a dismal .667 OPS, 10 home runs and 42 RBIs.
He has also committed 14 errors in the field, the most by any second baseman.