Yankees prospect Gleyber Torres benched for mental mistake

Hal Steinbrenner says the Yankees won’t trade any of their top prospects. That includes Gleyber Torres who will likely learn a valuable lesson following his recent benching due to a mental mistake.

Part of the process of becoming a big league ready ball player is learning from one’s mistakes. Let’s hope that’s exactly what Yankees No. 1 prospect Gleyber Torres does after failing to run out a pop-up on Wednesday night.

After hitting a ball down the left-field line in the top of the seventh inning, Torres was slow out of the box — thinking he had a routine fly that the outfielder would make a play on.

Clearly, Torres needs to do a little less thinking and bit more reacting, because the ball actually fell in for a hit. Torres ended up with a double on the play.

As the Trenton Thunder defense took the field in the bottom of the inning, Torres was nowhere to be found, as manager Bobby Mitchell pulled the highly touted young player.

Kudos to Mitchell for setting a standard that needs to be adhered to. If moments like these happen without consequence, what’s stopping them from happening at the next level of professional ball?

General Manager Brian Cashman told the New York Post he wasn’t worried about Torres’ action but praised Double-A manager Mitchell for being proactive.

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“He lost the ball, it wasn’t on purpose… The manager always has discretion, no matter how high of a player,’’ Cashman said before the Yankees’ 5-1 loss to the Royals on Thursday night. “I am happy we have people like that.’’

Manager Joe Girardi was quick to give Torres a pass because the blunder isn’t something Torres has done before — as he told NJ Advance Media.

“Gleyber is a kid who plays hard and has never been an issue,” Girardi said Thursday before the Yankees and Kansas City Royals’ game at Kauffmann Stadium. “They have the rules down in the minor leagues. If you don’t run hard, the manager has the ability to pull you. I don’t think this is a habit of Gleyber’s.“It kind of looked like maybe he didn’t know where the ball was or he thought it was foul, then he took off. So I don’t really make much of it.”

The 20-year-old was right back in the lineup on Thursday against New Hampshire — going 1-5 with a two-run homer in the Thunder’s 9-2 victory. It was Torres’ third long ball in the past four games.

In 29 games this season, Torres is batting .282 with nine doubles, four home runs and 14 RBI. The Yankees have stuck to their plan of using the versatile Venezuelan all around the diamond:

• 18 games at shortstop
• 5 games at second base
• 4 games at third base
• 2 games at DH
• 0 errors total

Next: Remember when you wanted to release Hicks?

For a developing talent like Torres, accountability is paramount. Like Cashman and Girardi, I’m sure this is an isolated incident that will only better the player moving forward.