Yankees: 4 players the organization ruined in 2021

3. Luis Gil

OK, this might be a tad harsh because Gil is far from ruined, but he’s clearly not the same guy he was in August!

To kick off his MLB career, the Yankees top pitching prospect hurled three straight scoreless outings in his first three appearances. He made Yankees history and MLB history when you dive deeper into the specifics of it.

Incredible! Ride the hot hand, especially with Corey Kluber on the shelf, among other factors affecting the pitching staff as a whole. But let us ask you something: do the Yankees ever ride the hot hand?

After his third impressive performance, which featured 4.2 scoreless frames against the Red Sox, Gil was sent back down to the minors. That part wasn’t even the most indefensible decision!

Three weeks later, the Yankees thought bringing Gil back up to the bigs to face a blistering hot Blue Jays squad to snap a four-game losing streak was the right call! How?! You just rewarded him after three spotless outings with three weeks in the middle of Pennsylvania, and now you’re going to ask him to face arguably the best offense in the American League in a near-must-win situation?

Gil’s last two outings were unsurprisingly bad. Against the Jays, he walked seven batters in 3.1 frames and then Lucas Luetge’s awful relief appearances charged Gil with his first earned runs of the year. The Yankees lost that game. Then, on Monday against the Twins, though it ended with a Yankees victory, Gil was battered to the tune of five earned runs on seven hits (three homers!) and a walk.

Walks are one thing. Gil’s notoriously had control problems throughout his minor-league journey. But the sudden onslaught of dingers?

The Yankees were on a hot run at the blackjack table, pulled the house money back in the middle of the streak, and decided to go piss it all away at the roulette table. Why?

2. Luke Voit

Oh man, do NOT get Yankees fans started about the situation with Luke Voit. He was the team’s hottest hitter before manager Aaron Boone just … stopped playing him.

Yes, the Anthony Rizzo trade had obvious implications of Voit losing playing time, but not to this magnitude. Since being named AL Player of the Week on Aug. 23, Voit has started in eight games out of a possible 20. That’s not even HALF!

Nobody’s complaining about the team acquiring Rizzo. The Yankees undoubtedly needed more stability at first base given Voit’s injury issues. However, the problem lies with the team clearly having no plan in the event Voit stayed healthy with Rizzo in the picture. Instead, he’s had to answer questions about his playing time and how he felt about coming off the bench.

On top of that, Rizzo has largely struggled since missing 11 days on the COVID IL. He returned on Aug. 18 only to see his average and OPS decline. Boone’s only given him a couple days off over the last month, one of which came on Monday.

The once red-hot Voit had his starting job taken away only to be reduced to a pinch-hitter with infrequent starts despite the Yankees possessing the ability to play Aaron Judge, Joey Gallo and Giancarlo Stanton in the outfield to leave the DH spot open.

Voit’s been taken out of his rhythm, the team presented no alternative, and his play has suffered as a result. The Yankees just love getting worse, don’t they?

1. Gleyber Torres

It took nearly a full season’s worth of games (150, to be exact), but the Yankees have finally moved Gleyber Torres off shortstop … which many would argue probably should’ve been done, at the latest, before the trade deadline.

Even though it was painfully obvious in 2020 that Torres was unable to effectively field the shortstop position, most fans would agree that 42-game sample size wasn’t fair to the youngster, who was making a momentous shift that required a bit more patience.

But then 2021 came, and we saw enough. We saw enough in the first month, actually, but many were willing to let it last until the trade deadline, where we thought general manager Brian Cashman would address the issue if the problems persisted.

The problems indeed persisted, no change was made, and instead the Yankees waited until *checks calendar* Sept. 13 to do it. Now, with just under three weeks left in the season, Torres will have to adjust in a significant manner again. Could’ve just done it at the trade deadline to give him two months … not to mention the other players this will affect.

And you’d be insane to think the defensive troubles at short haven’t contributed to his disappearing abilities at the plate. He has just 10 home runs in his last 151 games after belting 62 in his first 267. He’s on pace to produce less than a third of that output in 23 more games.

It’s not easy to evaluate players, pinpoint problems, and make sweeping roster decisions. Everybody knows that. But everybody who had watched Torres over his last 100 games knew this wasn’t going to work … but the Yankees stuck with it, likely remaining stubborn because they needed their plan to unfold their way to justify giving DJ LeMahieu $90 million.

That’s been the all-too-familiar narrative with this organization for the better part of the last decade. And, in some way, it’s contributed to how these players have taken a step back as a whole or in recent weeks.

Yankees officially change Gleyber Torres’ position and welcome 2022 chaos

The New York Yankees opened Pandora's Box on Monday, moving Gleyber Torres off shortstop for the last...two weeks of the season.