Another inexcusable Gleyber Torres mistake costs Yankees dearly against Dodgers

For everything that has gone right for the New York Yankees lately, Gleyber Torres' play hasn't been one of them. Once thought to be a future cornerstone in the Yankees' lineup, Torres is working on his fifth straight mediocre (at best) season at the plate while being a poor defender basically wherever the Yankees have played him. Unfortunately, the latter problem reared it's ugly head against the Dodgers on Saturday.

In the eighth inning, the Yankees were down by two and the Dodgers had Mookie Betts at first with no outs. However, the Yankees managed to get Shohei Ohtani to hit a grounder straight at Torres that, for most big league defenders, would have been a prime opportunity to get a double play. Instead, Gleyber Torres booted it and LA had runners at first and second with no out.

At that point, the Yankees' fate was sealed. Instead of keeping the deficit to two runs, Tommy Kahnle's strikeout of Freddie Freeman only gave New York their first out of the inning. After a walk to Will Smith to load the bases, Yankees killer Teoscar Hernandez launched a changeup 424 feet to center field for a grand slam to put the game out of reach at 8-2. Kahnle definitely deserves the blame for serving up a pitch on a silver platter to Hernandez, but that inning should have never gotten to that point but did thanks to Torres' ineptitude.

Gleyber Torres' existence on this Yankees' roster continues to cost them

Sadly, this isn't the first time JUST IN THIS SERIES where Torres' lack of defensive acumen has showed up. In the third inning of Friday night's game, Torres got lazy tracking a pop up into the outfield and dropped it to give the Dodgers a free baserunner. He got bailed out for that boneheaded play by a pickoff, but it is the latest in a long line of embarrassing moments for the Yankees infielder.

At this point, Yankees fans are just counting the days until they can rid themselves of Torres. If prospect Caleb Durbin wasn't hurt down in the minor leagues right now, it is highly possible that Torres would have already been riding the pine given that he is neither hitting the ball nor catching it this year. Torres was already a prime candidate to get traded at the deadline this year and his latest Benny Hill moment probably isn't going to help his case for sticking around.

Even if New York can't find any takers for the pending free agent Torres at the deadline, don't be shocked if the Yankees make a change and soon to get him out of this otherwise impressive Yankees lineup. There is too much at stake for them to do anything else.

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