Yankees hope they ‘dodged a bullet’ with Gleyber Torres ankle

Gleyber Torres has had a resurgence. After two years of struggles, the second baseman has returned to the position where he seems more comfortable and has rediscovered a swing that works for him. So watching him leave Sunday’s game with a turned ankle was obviously concerning.

Aaron Boone was optimistic after the game. The Yankees manager said he thought they “dodged a bullet.”

But Boone is also cautious when it comes to his players’ health. It would not be surprising if he rested Torres Monday night in the series opener against the A’s at the Stadium.

And the Yankees are built for that. The redundancy built into their infield came help them in these situations.

DJ LeMahieu is obviously a natural second baseman and can start there.  He has been used to rest Josh Donaldson regularly at third, at least once every three games. Matt Carpenter has extensive experience at third base and Marwin Gonzalez can also play third or second base.

The Yankees also have options at Triple-A, if Torres needs a longer recovery time and they need to make a roster move. That includes top prospect Oswald Peraza a call up, though he has played just five minor-league games at second base. Chris Owings, Derek Dietrich and Jose Peraza are also available in Scranton.

“He caught a spike and kind of rolled it there at third,” Boone said. “I’m hoping it scared him more than anything. We’ll see what we have overnight and (Monday) but I don’t expect it to be serious.”

But after two years of struggles at the plate, what the Yankees would miss is Torres’ bat. He’s hitting .250/.302/.487 with 13 homers and 32 RBI.

Torres got hurt trying to get back to third base after taking a big lead. With one out and the game tied at 3-3 in the ninth inning, Torres stole second base, and catcher Martin Maldonado’s throw went into center field. Torres moved to third on the error.

In 2020, the Yankees — and to be fair other teams’ talent evaluators — felt that Torres was just hindered by the fact he showed up after the COVID-19 spring training shutdown out of shape and that resulted in a leg injury.

Last season, however, in 127 games, Torres had  just nine homers and 51 RBI. He slashed  .259/.331/.366 with a .697 OPS. He also had a career-high 14 stolen bases.

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Source: Berkshire mont