BALTIMORE – Gleyber Torres said he understood the Yankees’ reasons for moving him from shortstop to intermediate.
Manager Aaron Boone made the decision after Torres made 18 mistakes in that campaign, including four in the last week.
“Everything is for the team,” Torres said before Tuesday night’s game against the Baltimore Orioles. “I didn’t really do a good job in the shortstop. I made too many mistakes and I feel that in the situation we are in now, you can’t make mistakes. So I feel good to go to second. I just want to be part of the team “.
The Venezuelan worked mainly as an intermediary in 2018 and 2019. He played a time as a torpedo boat when Didi Gregorius got hurt.
Before the 2020 campaign, Gregorius left as a free agent and the Yankees placed Torres as a shortstop.
Now, Boone has opted to move Colombian Gio Urshela from third base to the shortstop. DJ LeMahieu would go from the second to the anteroom.
Torres changed position for Monday’s game against Minnesota.
“I still think the best of his baseball is yet to come,” Boone said referring to Torres. “I just feel like the time to do this was the right one. Over the last week, it seemed to me that the weight of a couple of mistakes he has made had impacted him.”
Torres started Tuesday with an average of 249, seven fumbles and 45 RBIs in 109 games. It recorded an average of .243 with three homers and 16 tackles in the 2020 campaign, shortened by the pandemic.
In 2019, he batted for 278 with 38 toddlers and 90 produced. He was selected to the All-Star Game for the second consecutive season.
“That had weighed on him a little bit,” Boone said of Torres ’defensive work. “Hopefully this can release him a bit in the final stretch of the season. Hopefully he puts us in a position to play our best baseball.”