Yankees: Why did Aaron Boone rest the red hot Gleyber Torres?

Every so often there are feats of human ability that leave the mere mortals of earth awestruck and mystified by the otherworldly powers of their fellow man. The moon landing, Steve Jobs unveiling the first iPhone and Yankees shortstop Gleyber Torres hitting a baseball come to mind just to name a few.

I mean, just ask Baltimore Orioles play-by-play announcer Gary Thorne. Thursday, Torres sat on the Yankees bench after absolutely mashing the Orioles this series, launching two long balls the previous night and four during the four-game series.

In fact, Torres has had the O’s number all season long. The young infielder has an astounding slash line posting a .486 BA, 10 HR and 13 RBIs against the Birds. Overall, Gleyber has been one of the Yanks hottest bats, especially of late, driving his season batting average up to .302 coupled with 12 long balls and plating 26 runs.

This begs the question, why did Aaron Boone choose to rest Torres for Thursday’s getaway matinee with the Orioles? In what was just a scheduled day of rest, Gleyber was still needed to come off the bench and act as the catalyst for the Bombers late-inning rally.

Seemingly a product of Boone’s constant micromanaging, giving the hottest hitter on the team a day off is rather counterproductive. Baseball is very much a game of streaks and sitting a scorching hitter is the perfect way to make him cold as the Rockies. Gary Sanchez also got the day off despite hitting a home run in the first three games of the series and nine in ten games against the O’s. However, his benching was easier to accept because he’s a catcher and it was day game after a night game.

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The Yankees won the game, so the point is moot, but what if they hadn’t? Aaron Boone could really lose himself some games by mismanaging his players this way. Torres’ bat is invaluable to this lineup, especially during this hot streak.

The season is still very young, so Boone should be maximizing Gleyber’s at-bats and saving the time off for the dog days of summer. The team especially cannot afford these days off when a lot of their heavy hitters are still on the injured list.

It would be a real shame to drop silly games to subpar teams over the course of the summer because of the carelessness, or rather overbearing, of the manager. Boone seems to manage inside his own head, overthinking each and every move.

Let’s get the best players on the field, and let the bats take care of the rest.