“Been saying for years. Dude is dumb as a rock. Has the baseball sense of a 5-year-old. Can’t wait till he’s gone.”
If you’re searching for a pulse on the Yankees’ fanbase, @SavageYankees captured the mood in one brutal tweet. The subject of that scathing review? Gleyber Torres. And after Tuesday night’s debacle, it’s hard to find anyone disagreeing.
The Yankees had the chance to punch their postseason ticket. They had the momentum. They had the home crowd behind them. They even had Aaron Judge due up with a chance to win it. Then, Gleyber happened. Again. The baserunning gaffe that killed the Yankees’ rally wasn’t just another mistake; it was a repeat offense from a player who, for all his offensive resurgence, has consistently found new ways to derail the Yankees’ season with boneheaded plays.
In a 3-5 loss to the Orioles that felt like it should have been a victory, Torres’ blunder was the centerpiece of frustration. And in the aftermath, social media turned into a battleground, with Gleyber Torres once again standing in the line of fire.
Gleyber Torres’ blunder
Let’s set the scene. It’s the seventh inning. The Yankees are down 4-2, fighting tooth and nail to claw their way back into the game. Alex Verdugo at third, and Gleyber Torres, representing the tying run, stands on second base. Juan Soto rips a single to right and drives Verdugo in. Orioles’ right fielder Anthony Santander comes up firing, delivering a missile to home plate. Third base coach Luis Rojas throws up the stop sign for Torres. All should’ve been well.
But then Gleyber Torres hesitates. Soto, aggressively chugging toward second base, forces Torres into making a decision: stay put or break for home. Torres chooses the latter, despite Rojas’ stop sign. The result? Torres gets caught in a 9-2-6-2-5-2-6 rundown, snuffing out the Yankees’ rally with Aaron Judge waiting in the on-deck circle.
That rundown—excruciating to watch—felt like a microcosm of everything that’s been plaguing Gleyber Torres this season. For all his improvements at the plate, it’s the repeated mental lapses that have driven fans insane. He’s tied for the most outs at home plate in the majors this season, and this one—his sixth—came at the worst possible time. To note: the best hitter in baseball, Aaron Judge was due next, potentially with second and third loaded, after already hitting a homer earlier in the game. The stage was set, almost so perfect that the Yanks would seal their ALDS berth, clinching the division with Judge driving in their two best hitters recently. But it wasn’t meant to be. Not yet at least.
Gerrit Cole, sitting in the dugout, provided a reaction that went viral. Head bowed into his cap, back against the dugout wall, Cole looked like a man praying for deliverance from a nightmare. “Gerrit Cole perfectly captured all of us after Gleyber’s latest adventure,” tweeted @Christian_NYYST, attaching the clip of Cole.
The reactions online weren’t kind. They never are, especially not after a game of this magnitude. But the overwhelming theme was clear: Yankees fans have had enough – but in all fairness, Yankees fans have always had enough.
Captain Aaron Judge, generally diplomatic in his approach to addressing such issues, took a strong stand (per his standards). “When it comes down to it, stuff like that can’t happen. We can’t keep shooting ourselves in the foot with mistakes like that on the basepaths. But it happened, and we’ve got to move on and get ready for tomorrow.”
If one were to ask me for my unsolicited opinion, I’d say his bat is way too valuable, this particular game, on the other hand, wasn’t so much – so it’s okay. But I’ll probably be eating my words if something partly along these lines goes down in the playoffs.
shawn_womack, on Instagram, also did a pretty decent job at summing up what had just gone down: “No for sure, why would we want guys on second and third with the literal best hitter in baseball up? Good job Gleyber, the baseball IQ shines bright again. And I was JUST asking the baseball gods to redirect my earlier season complaints about you allll to Verdugo instead”
Fans vent, but is it all on Gleyber Torres?
It’s easy to pin the Yankees’ struggles on Gleyber Torres, especially when he’s the face of the latest collapse. But this was more than just a bad decision. The Yankees’ season has been a rollercoaster of inconsistency, if you look beyond the last two weeks, and Torres’ blunder was just another twist in a ride that’s left fans nauseous.
Gleyber Torres’ defense? “I just tried to protect Soto, but I feel like I have to be a little more aggressive. If I’m going to make that decision, go straight for the run. I think that’s going to be my mistake.”
Some fans, like @KTITANS, weren’t ready to give Torres a pass: “WTF does he mean protect Soto? Stay on the bag, jackass.” Torres’ explanation—that he was trying to protect Soto by forcing a throw—wasn’t cutting it.
Many other angry reactions toward Gleyber Torres included:
Yet, amid the fury, a few fans came to Torres’ defense. @VanWinkle2112 made a compelling argument that Torres wasn’t entirely to blame: “This is not Torres’ fault. Soto is out easily at 2nd base if the 2B man gets the tag down. Torres doesn’t go for home if the throw doesn’t go to 2nd base. Why Soto was going to 2nd, especially with Judge coming up, made no sense. Soto’s fuck up, not Torres’.”
It’s true—this wasn’t just a Gleyber issue. You wouldn’t want first base empty with Aaron Judge up next, making it the simplest of decisions to allow an intentional walk. All the more reason for Soto to stay put at first, hence not forcing Gleyber Torres’ boneheaded response of getting stuck between third and home. Also, maybe, that stop sign by third-base coach Luis Rojas wasn’t needed. Gleyber Torres could’ve just made him without getting involved in any rundown to protect or not. This was, in very simple words, an all-around boneheaded play by all the Yanks running bases, and the coach at third. Ironically Alex Verdugo at third, made it home with ease.
But when you’ve made as many mistakes as Torres has, it’s hard not to be the lightning rod for fan fury.
As @BuffaloDziadek tweeted, “Torres is bound to make some dumb plays in the playoffs on the basepaths or on defense. We can only hope it doesn’t cost us a game or series.” That’s the lingering fear for Yankees fans—that Torres’ mistakes won’t just cost them a game, but an entire postseason run.
Gleyber Torres’ road ahead
The Yankees now need to win one of their final five games—or pray that the Orioles drop one—to secure the AL East, get a first-round walkover, and start preparations for the ALDS. It seems inevitable that they’ll get there, but what happens once they do?
Gleyber Torres has been an enigma all season. His transition to the leadoff spot has rejuvenated his bat, and when he’s hitting, there are few better at sparking the Yankees’ offense. But the mistakes—whether in the field or on the basepaths—have been too frequent, too glaring, and too costly. Tuesday night was just the latest in a series of missteps that have left Yankees fans exasperated.
“Been saying for years. Dude is dumb as a rock,” @SavageYankees tweeted, summing up what a significant portion of the fanbase feels. But the reality is more complicated. Torres’ talent is undeniable, and when he’s on, he can be one of the best players in the Yankees’ lineup, at least his recent form attests to that. But these are the Yankees. The margin for error is razor-thin, and right now, Gleyber Torres is pushing the limits.
For a team with championship aspirations, that’s a dangerous game to play.
If the Yankees are going to make any noise in October, they’ll need Gleyber Torres to be at his best. The problem is, no one—least of all Yankees fans—knows which version of Torres they’re going to get. What do you think? Leave your comment below!
