Gleyber Torres lands on 10-day injured list sprained left thumb
New York Yankees' Gleyber Torres reacts holding his wrist after he steals second base against the Seattle Mariners during the fourth inning of an MLB baseball game at Yankee Stadium on Sunday, Aug. 8, 2021. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Aaron Boone acknowledged being "concerned" about Gleyber Torres late Sunday afternoon.
The manager’s worries were confirmed Monday, though early indications are the news could have been far worse.
Before starting a three-game series against the Royals on Monday night, the Yankees announced that Torres had been placed on the injured list with a left thumb sprain.
An MRI taken after Sunday’s 2-0 loss to the Mariners at Yankee Stadium revealed the injury, which occurred as Torres dived into second base on a steal in the fourth inning. Boone said he anticipates Torres being out "10 to 20 days," which is significantly less time than what the manager originally thought.
"I would say [Sunday] night we got good news," Boone said Monday, adding that the club won't know for certain until Torres is evaluated by a specialist, which will occur in the coming days. "I think we were concerned that it was going to be more serious. As of right now, it's a sprained thumb, so obviously he's on the IL. But realistically, we'll have a better idea in the next couple of days. But I actually was texting with Gleyber [on Monday] and I think he was a little bit relieved and already at the Stadium and back in New York doing some rehab stuff and feeling better. So I think we were kind of expecting the worst and probably got some pretty good news last [Sunday] night."
Bronx-born infielder Andrew Velazquez, who attended Fordham Prep, was signed to a major league contract and selected to the 26-man roster from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre as a corresponding roster move.
Counting Sunday, Torres appeared in 99 of the Yankees’ first 111 games. He is hitting .253 with six homers and a .679 OPS. Those are unimpressive numbers, but he had shown recent signs of emerging from a season-long slump, compiling a .417/.407/.583 slash line in his last seven games.
Torres was 3-for-4 with a double Sunday when the injury finally forced him from the game after the eighth inning.
"I’m a little concerned about him right now," Boone said after the loss. "As the game went on, he just felt kind of the instability hitting."
At least on the surface, Monday brought better news than the Yankees were expecting.
The day also was a success in the sense that another player wasn’t added to the COVID-19 injured list (as of Monday night, at least). Anthony Rizzo, off to a blazing start with the Yankees after being acquired from the Cubs just before the July 30 trade deadline, had been put on the list Sunday, joining Gerrit Cole, Jordan Montgomery and Gary Sanchez during the past week.
This marked the Yankees' third COVID outbreak of the season. In May, a total of nine members of their traveling party tested positive — one player, Torres, was in that group, though Boone later disclosed his was a false positive — and a second outbreak occurred last month when six players were put on the COVID IL.
The Yankees arrived in a state — and city — Sunday night that is among the hottest spots in the country for new COVID-19 cases. Kansas City reinstated its mask mandate Aug. 2.
"Nope, nothing new today," Boone said of any more COVID-19 cases.
So a few hours before the Yankees took the field, given the days and weeks preceding the comment, that counted as a victory.
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
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