New York Yankees second baseman Gleyber Torres has been known to commit blunders on the field, much to the chagrin of the team's fanbase. However, Torres' latest error was his most egregious yet, and fans are now calling for his head like never before.
In the top half of the third inning of Friday's matchup with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Torres dropped an easy pop-up behind the infield, attempting to catch the ball at his waist rather than above his chest, via @JohnnyHoey on X.
“Gleyber Torres can't get off the Yankees fast enough,” the user said. “If this is how he plays in a contract year, how hard will he play after a new contract?”
It's hard to argue with this logic. Players usually do all they can to impress in contract years, but Torres leads all second basemen with eight errors.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone sounded off on Torres' Little League-esque blunder, via SNY.
“He's as good a pop-up catcher as we've had,” Boone said. “Every time he goes to catch one, I go ‘ahh' because it's now how I'd do it, but he's really good at doing it. He missed a play today. I get how it looks sometimes with Gleyber. Reality is the last month he's played really good defense. Nobody talks about a lot of the plays that he makes.”
Boone is known to passionately defend his players in the face of criticism, sometimes to a fault. While it's good for managers to support their clubhouse, it can alienate fans when they feel like he never confronts or corrects the players about anything.
Is Boone right, or is he not being hard enough on Torres?
Torres has shown promise through the years, but his Yankees future is in trouble
The seventh-year skipper continued to elaborate on why people don't give Torres enough credit.
“The times he does make an error, it doesn't look like the guy that's diving in front of it…so I understand that happens sometimes, but you've gotta parse it out a little bit and see what actually is happening,” Boone said. “The reality is the last month of defense from him has been really solid. A couple really good plays tonight, a really good double-play turn. He dropped a pop-up, that's how he catches pop-ups. Not necessarily how I'd do it, but he's really good at catching 'em, actually…I don't want it dropped, but you know, it does happen. I can't recall going back six or seven years when he's dropped a pop-up. He catches them like that a lot. It's how he slows the game down a little bit, and I get how sometimes it looks to people.”
As with most MLB players, Torres makes the play more often than he doesn't. However, the two-time All-Star was also ninth in the league last year with 15 errors. This has been a pattern, no matter what Boone says. It would be wise for Torres to practice proper pop-up catching technique before it's too late.
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