Yankees: Gleyber Torres quad issue seems like another Aaron Boone lie

Yankees SS Gleyber Torres is dealing with a quad issue, which we weren’t told he was dealing with on Sunday. Got it. Another one.

How often are we going to have to demand transparency from the New York Yankees before the organization realizes that white lies are often more harmful than divulging truths?

Especially since the issues the team attempts to cover up always get drawn out in the wash by the time the next game’s lineup must drop.

Gleyber Torres, after coming back sooner than anticipated (by many) from dual quad and hamstring strains, received a day off for supposed rest on Sunday, though he eventually pinch hit in the affair and won the game with a two-out, two-run double in the eighth. Aaron Boone was all smiles in the postgame, regaling us with the tale of Torres’ dramatic hit, never dropping a hint that there might’ve been another reason he’d stayed away from the infielder earlier in the game.

"“I told him before, ‘There might be a big spot late so be ready,’ ” Boone said of Torres, who was told by bench coach Carlos Mendoza in the fifth inning to start preparing to hit if the Orioles used a left-handed reliever. “Once they brought Scott into that spot I felt it was his spot and he goes up there and put a great at-bat and obviously we win this game.’’"

That’s fantastic! It was an excellent deployment of Torres, to be sure.

Except, on what was supposed to be the joyous day of Gio Urshela and Giancarlo Stanton’s return, Torres’ name was conspicuously absent from the lineup. Since we all know what that means by now (no Yankee can return without at least one leaving!), Boone went ahead and confirmed it.

Ahh, yes. Quad issue. The issue he recently returned from. Was that so hard?

Of course, since we’ve tracked this same phenomenon with this team endlessly over the past two years, allow me to fill in the next 48 hours. Much like with Aaron Judge, when what began as “caution” against the Braves became something by the next day, Torres has now been held out “against his will,” assuring the manager that he could play.

Now, anticipation will build for the release of the lineup on Wednesday. I’d say the odds are in your favor that, after much consternation, Torres won’t be in it.

And this is why it’s so disappointing to watch obvious injury situations be omitted from the narrative until 48 hours or so down the line. Why would a perfectly healthy Torres miss Sunday’s pennant chase game ahead of an off day? He wouldn’t. So why not just mention the elephant in the room instead of tossing him a peanut and telling him to come back Tuesday?

It’s certainly good to know that Torres would be in the lineup for Game 1 of the Wild Card Series, although he won’t be in there to battle Toronto in a seeding-determining matchup. But it would’ve all been easier to swallow if Boone (and the organization that controls him) had simply set expectations properly on Sunday afternoon.

We follow this team. We’re not oblivious to its behavioral patterns. And that’s all the more reason to abandon them in favor of honesty.

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