Yankees bench Gleyber Torres amid lengthy hitless streak
Gleyber Torres walked to the plate at Comerica Park Wednesday and looked out toward a "Miggy’s Milestones" tracker, which is tallying Tigers slugger Miguel Cabrera’s quest for 3,000 hits.
Desperate for just one hit of his own, Torres ended up going 0-for-4 on the day.
The New York Yankees second baseman has opened the 2022 season with a dismal .143 batting average through 12 games. His struggles peaked during the team's mid-week series in Detroit, with manager Aaron Boone benching the young infielder for New York's Tuesday and Thursday outings against the Tigers amid an 0-for-17 stretch.
However, Boone expressed confidence in Torres rediscovering his early-career form.
"I wouldn’t read too much into it," Boone said to the media ahead of New York's series finale Thursday. "Just mix[ing] and match[ing] a little bit. I think he’s in a good place. I feel like all spring I liked where his swing is at and where he’s getting back to. The first week of games, felt like he was getting a lot of good swings in. He’ll get there."
Torres was long heralded as one of baseball's brightest prospects, joining the Yankees from Chicago in 2016. Tommy John surgery was the only roadblock to his promotion to the majors the following season. The Venezuelan middle infielder began the 2018 campaign with AAA-affiliate Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, only to be called up less than a month later. The Yankees and Torres benefited from his move to the Bronx, with Torres hitting .310 and helping New York to a win in each of his first eight contests with the team.
Torres stayed hot throughout his rookie season, earning an All-Star appearance and finishing third in Rookie of the Year voting. He looked set to become one of the best young hitters in baseball after posting a .278 batting average and clubbing 38 homers his sophomore season in pinstripes.
The last two seasons haven't been as kind to Torres, however, dipping to a .243 batting average during the truncated 2020 season and maintaining a marginally better .257 clip in 2021. For Boone, the most concerning of Torres' decline has been his loss of power, slugging just 13 home runs in his last 716 plate appearances dating back to 2020.
"The biggest thing last year was he didn’t hit for the power he’s put up in the past," Boone said Thursday. "But he was still doing a lot of good things and I felt like finished down the stretch strong for us. Absolutely know that’s there for him, and we’ve got to pull it out."
Long-standing issues with discipline at the plate have bled into 2022 as well, with Torres opening the season in the ninth percentile for chase rate and the 25th percentile for walk percentage.
He's hardly been dependable on the field either, forced out of his natural shortstop position after committing 19 errors in 2021, the ninth-most among all MLB players. Torres and replacement Isiah Kiner-Falefa have created something of a shortstop crisis this season, with both players showing a propensity for errors and lengthy hitting slumps.
Torres' absence didn't help the New York offense Thursday, losing 3-0 against the Tigers. The Yankees will face an uphill battle jump-starting their sputtering offense with upcoming games against Cleveland and Baltimore. Both teams rank in the top 10 in ERA this season.