Aaron Boone’s defense of Gleyber Torres isn’t really convincing Yankees fans

Yankees manager Aaron Boone spoke on a number of topics, but Gleyber Torres stood out the most.

We could count on, like, three fingers the amount of New York Yankees players who received surefire votes of confidence from the team after the 2020 season: DJ LeMahieu, Gerrit Cole and Clint Frazier. That’s about it.

Everyone else? Lukewarm reviews. A bunch of lengthy responses that looped in excuses or hypotheticals. “Well, because of this…” In the end, it’s not really what you want to hear when your team is supposed to be a perennial World Series contender.

And that couldn’t apply more to Gleyber Torres, who moved over to shortstop on a full-time basis in 2020 only to disappoint in just about every facet of his game. However, his struggles on defense were paramount, leading many to wonder if he’s a true future fit at the position for the Yankees. The 23-year-old, if all goes well, figures to be here for the next decade, after all.

But here we are. It’s mid-November and the man still can’t get a clean review from anyone in the organization. Manager Aaron Boone was the latest to weigh in on Torres while appearing on Bucky Dent’s “Deep to Left” podcast.

“I do think he’s capable of doing it,” Boone told Dent on Monday.“I think sometimes what gets lost is this is a 23-year-old kid that’s had massive success at the big-league level and sometimes there’s some learning curves and some growing pains at different spots,” Boone said. “So, physically, I think he absolutely has the capabilities of playing the positions and playing it well. I just think it’s going to come down to, as you know at shortstop, such an important part of that position is the routine and getting great at the routine. If he can do that, he can stay there and thrive.”

Boone also said that Torres “could slide back to second base if necessary and that the club will ‘continue to work alongside of him,'” per NJ.com’s Brendan Kuty.

Does any of this sound like, “This is our shortstop of the future”? Not at all. There’s still talk of him sliding back to second base. There’s still the “Oh, well, we think (maybe?) he’s capable of holding down shortstop … perhaps?” lack of assurance, which will lead more and more fans to believe that the team is exploring a trade for Francisco Lindor (or someone else).

General manager Brian Cashman did not commit to Torres being the shortstop of the future, and now weeks later Boone isn’t exactly giving us any new information. The Yankees feel he might be the answer, but they might not want to experiment with that again across a full 162-game slate in 2021, which will be another prime opportunity for the team to take home a championship.

Once again, we have another open-ended assessment of one of the team’s best young players, and quite frankly it doesn’t bode well for a DJ LeMahieu return or a long-term solution at the most important infield position.

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