Yankees: 4 players the organization ruined in 2021

The New York Yankees can’t help it. They always find a way to ruin some of their promising talent, whether it be through misuse, lack of playing time, or a delayed promotion to the bigs. Joba Chamberlain remains the premier example of the modern era to this day.

We’ve seen it happen to others over the years, but 2021 might take the cake with the amount of guys that have regressed beyond comprehension, lost their jobs for little to no reason, or were tinkered with for the worse.

Does anyone care to explain any of these gaffes? Because they clearly were mistakes made by the organization. You can’t pin all of the blame on the players for what’s happened, especially since the mental aspect of it all has played an enormous role.

And, what’s even more frustrating, is that we have to wonder how different this arduous year would’ve been had some of these decisions been altered before things got way worse than we could’ve imagined.

It’s always the little things in baseball, but it seems the Yankees forget that over and over, removing the human/instinct element from it all … while sometimes just abandoning logic altogether.

The Yankees truly ruined these four players in 2021.

4. Deivi Garcia

Just last year, Deivi Garcia was a future cornerstone for the Yankees starting rotation. He showed gumption when called upon during the shortened 2020 campaign and stopped the bleeding against the Blue Jays, which helped right the ship and eventually get the Bombers a Wild Card spot.

His 4.98 ERA in those six starts wasn’t overly impressive, but that number was inflated by one really bad outing against the Boston Red Sox. It happens.

Fast forward to 2021, and the right-hander owns a 6.78 ERA in 22 games with the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. How?! He’s only gotten two starts at the MLB level this year despite the countless injuries that have befallen the rotation.

Previous reports indicated that a suggested change in Garcia’s mechanics was responsible for his horrible backslide, which, hey, wouldn’t be surprising! On top of that, the Yankees screwed with him in Game 2 of the ALDS when they tried to psyche out the Rays by “opening” with Garcia and quickly transitioning to the hated JA Happ. It didn’t work.

Then, Garcia started the year off in the minor leagues as the organization backed Domingo German, who hadn’t pitched since Sept. of 2019 because of domestic violence allegations. That couldn’t have sent the wrong message to the 22-year-old, now could it?

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?

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.