Aaron Boone had brushed off Gleyber Torres’ slow start to the season multiple times over the past week whenever he was given the chance.
But the Yankees second baseman was still 0-for-3 with three strikeouts Wednesday — and batting .197 on the young season — when he came to the plate in the ninth inning of a game the Yankees trailed by a run.
What followed may have been merely getting the monkey off his back for a day, or perhaps it was the first step toward getting as hot as Boone believes he will. Either way, Torres’ single roped to left field that gave way to a game-winning rally provided a chance to exhale.
“Offensively, I don’t worry about Gleyber,” Boone said after the 6-4 win over the Blue Jays, repeating a phrase he had used in some form on various occasions in recent days.
“But it’s like, this many games in, we’re all human. You want to get results and see that scoreboard and see what it is. He’s just too talented a hitter to be held down. To come up in a big spot right after [Giancarlo Stanton] gets us the one and essentially starts the rally, happy for him.”
Now Torres has a chance to turn it into a jumping-off point to get back on track in a big contract year for him.
A year ago, Torres was the Yankees’ most consistent hitter over the course of the full season. That said, he did have stretches somewhat like the one he currently finds himself in as he enters Friday batting .208 with a .554 OPS, zero home runs, 10 walks and 20 strikeouts.
In 16 games from April 18 to May 5 of last season, he hit .197 with a .587 OPS, two home runs, four walks and seven strikeouts. In 19 games from June 6 to June 28, he hit .203 with a .672 OPS, three home runs, seven walks and 13 strikeouts.
So there is plenty of time for Torres to turn things around, hit his first home run (and a few more after that) and become the impact bat in the middle of the order that the Yankees expect him to be.
“Getting better. Fighting,” Torres said this week. “I don’t think it’s going the right way right now on the hitting side, but keep fighting. Keep trying to hit the ball hard every time, and at some point, the ball will start going my way.”
Boone has been steadfast that it will.
“I think he’s making good swing decisions overall,” Boone said. “I think we’ve seen that from the start. He has squared some balls up, where he’s hit a ball good to right or kind of just missed a little bit. I feel like he’s doing a good job of putting the ball in play and mostly off the barrel, too. He’s just not all the way at that locked-in [level] where GT starts throwing line drives all over the yard consistently. But again, if you didn’t know his numbers or anything and just sat and watched a rip of his at-bats, you’d say he’s in a pretty good place.”
Torres started the season batting leadoff in place of the injured DJ LeMahieu and stayed there for 12 games in which he hit .200 with a .521 OPS, five walks and 11 strikeouts. Boone replaced him with the red-hot Anthony Volpe, saying the move was more about getting Torres going because he thought the 27-year-old had been pressing for results in his last few games there.
In seven games since dropping down in the order — batting either fifth or sixth — Torres has hit .227 with a .620 OPS, five walks and nine strikeouts.
Early-season numbers can be fickle because of the small sample size, with one big night being capable of boosting a batting average or OPS.
Underlying metrics can sometimes be a better indicator, though those don’t exactly favor Torres either.
While his chase rate was encouraging (18.5 percent, ranking in the 94th percentile), his barrel rate of 3.7 was only in the 26th percentile, his expected batting average (.204) was in line with his real one and his expected slugging percentage (.275) was only slightly higher than his real one (.236).
One other positive was Torres was generally working patient at-bats, seeing 4.36 pitches per plate appearance, which ranked 18th in the majors as of Thursday (and second on the Yankees, trailing only Volpe’s 4.51).
“I think he’s been really close all year,” Boone said. “He’s not far off from really popping. He’s one of those guys that, offensively, I’m not too worried about. He’s going to get it rolling. In the leadoff spot and even now, he’s been close each and every day. He’s putting together a lot of good at-bats, not always finishing them off necessarily, but matter of time with GT.”
Back in spring training, while predicting that Torres was in for a big season, Boone said there was more potential defensively for the second baseman.
“He can play better at second base to where he should be a really great defender at second base,” Boone said in February.
That has yet to show itself early this season. With three errors, his minus-three Defensive Runs Saved was the lowest mark on the Yankees and tied for the second-worst mark among all second basemen.
The beauty for Torres is there is still plenty of time to change that, just like at the plate.
Where’s Oswaldo going?
LeMahieu is expected to begin a rehab assignment with Double-A Somerset on Friday, which is good news for the Yankees.
But what does that mean for Oswaldo Cabrera?
Cabrera has looked like his 2022 version early this season, batting .309 with an .895 OPS in 15 games, his 13 RBIs ranking second on the team behind Juan Soto. And while he had been in a platoon with the right-handed-hitting Jon Berti before Berti landed on the IL, the (mostly) switch-hitting Cabrera has been strong from both sides of the plate. Against righties as a left-handed hitter, he is batting .308 with a .979 OPS. Against lefties as a right-handed hitter, he is batting .385 with a .846 OPS.
Before LeMahieu’s injury, Cabrera was projected to serve in a utility role, moving all around the diamond. As long as he keeps hitting, it’s possible the Yankees can get him enough at-bats by giving regulars sporadic days off, though they have been running out almost the same lineup on most days this season.
Not a bad problem to have, of course.
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Run saver
Alex Verdugo has brought energy, some timely hits, the “dawgs” rallying cry and better defense than expected.
The left fielder has been terrific in the field through the early going, and while he was coming off a season in which he posted nine Defensive Runs Saved in right field for the Red Sox, Verdugo’s defense (so far he has two DRS in left field) has exceeded Boone’s expectations.
“Probably a little bit, yeah,” Boone said. “He’s been excellent. And he loves to play the game, which I love that. I love the grittiness with the way he plays; he’s a gamer.
“He’s made some really, really good plays in big spots, too, out in left field. I shot him over to center one game, shot him over to right [Saturday] night just to get Judgey and Soto off their feet for an inning. He likes to play, and that’s fun to watch.”
