Why Yankees manager Aaron Boone benched Gleyber Torres after baserunning blunders: ‘A great learning moment’

In glancing at the Blue Jays-Yankees box score (an 8-5 Blue Jays win), one might see that Yankees second baseman Gleyber Torres went 1 for 1 and then was removed from the game and wonder if he got hurt. No, he didn’t. He was benched by manager Aaron Boone in what Boone called after the game a “learning moment.” 

Here’s what happened: 

In the second inning, Torres hit a rocket to left field off of Kevin Gausman and loitered in the batter’s box admiring it. The ball hit off the wall and Torres only managed to get to first base for a long single. Here’s a look: 

“For one second, I thought it was a homer,” Torres told reporters, including MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch, after the game. “Unfortunately, it’s just a single. I have to get better. I feel really sorry for whatever I [did] tonight, especially for the fans and also for my teammates.”

Two batters after the single, Anthony Volpe doubled and Torres was cut down at home plate. 

Of note: That’s the fifth time this season Torres has been thrown out at the plate and that leads the majors (via Stathead’s Katie Sharp). 

And then, Boone removed Torres from the game. 

“I just felt like in that moment, I felt like I needed to do that,” Boone told reporters after the game (via YES). “Simple as that. It is what it is, it’s over with, we gotta move on, he and I have spoken, and hopefully this is a great learning moment for all of us.” 

Torres, 27, was an All-Star in his first two seasons but has been a bit of a disappointment since. In 105 games this season, he’s hitting .236/.311/.363 with 18 doubles, 10 homers, 42 RBI and 0.4 WAR. He’s set to hit free agency after the season and now that the Yankees have traded for Jazz Chisholm Jr. — who is under team control through 2026 — it seems like maybe Torres will just be set free. 

With the loss on Friday, the Yankees fall to 65-46 on the season. The good news for the Bombers is the Orioles also lost, so the two ballclubs remain tied atop the AL East with the Red Sox trailing by 5 1/2 games.