Yankees allow pair of inexplicable Mets runs on Ben Rortvedt spring brainlock

Gary Sánchez? Is that you? Tuesday afternoon's Yankees spring training action against the New York Mets featured a play that wouldn't have felt out of character in the immediate aftermath of Sánchez struggling to squat and tag the runner two summers ago at Citi Field.

We're simultaneously extremely glad the games don't count and supremely bummed for having had to witness this moment of zen, as Ben Rortvedt took a Harrison Cohen fastball and turned it into a deflated souffle in a matter of seconds, with Mets runners on second and third and two out.

The heater popped Rortvedt's mitt, but the young catcher couldn't hold on, as the ball rolled just a few inches away. That's when panic set in. Rortvedt seemingly had no idea he'd dropped the baseball, and when the Mets' runner broke from third, he approached the search with all the intensity of a newborn faun learning to stumble.

Somehow, the ball rolled away from Rortvedt with what appeared to be a 105.8 MPH exit velocity, as two runners were allowed to score while the baseball plowed forward. That noise you hear is Gerrit Cole sighing loudly from his couch in Tampa.

Yankees backup catcher Ben Rortvedt makes Gary Sánchez-esque gaffe at spring training

This is, uh, this is the kind of bad bounce that happens to bad players.

Rortvedt already might be on the outside looking in at a 2024 roster spot. Austin Wells and Jose Trevino seem poised to split the big-league catching duties, though an ill-timed injury has kept Trevino from game action thus far. Rortvedt, formerly Cole's caddy, has lost some of that work to Wells already this spring, having to settle for road duty in Port St. Lucie. Add in the fact that five catchers inexplicably remain on the 40-man roster -- even after Kyle Higashioka's exile -- and it's only a matter of time until Agustin Ramirez and his top-tier exit velocities are more appealing than Rortvedt's biceps.

Delete this tape and burn the memory card, Yankees.