Aaron Boone’s latest defense of struggling player should earn his firing

The Yankees lost another pitiful game in part due to Gleyber Torres’ errors. The most head-scratching part? Manager Aaron Boone was quick to defend Torres after the defeat.

On Sunday, the New York Yankees suffered yet another demoralizing loss, this time against the Chicago Cubs. In the series finale, the Yankees blew a 4-1 lead to ultimately lose 10-4, and one of the many culprits to be blamed was second baseman Gleyber Torres.

Torres has been far from perfection in the 2023 season and most recently fumbled the bag in the seventh inning, when his poorly-timed gaffe opened the floodgates for the Cubs to tie the game. That coupled with New York’s bullpen implosion saw the Yankees lose control of a match they had in hand for six innings.

Afterward, manager Aaron Boone addressed some of the press’ concerns about Torres’ litany of mistakes this year. And barring all logic or reason, Boone defended him, saying he didn’t think Torres had made an “outlandish” number of errors at second base.

What? Just… what? Here’s Torres’ latest mistake for reference:

Yankees’ Aaron Boone goes out on a limb for Gleyber Torres

Torres has made more errors than any second baseman in the league in 2023, with Sunday’s mistake marking his ninth of the year.

The saddest thing is that no one is terribly surprised by Torres’ screw-ups game after game. His tendency to rush plays and keep making mental mistakes hasn’t improved this far into the 2023 season, and as seen in Boone’s comments, there’s absolutely no accountability.

Despite outslugging the lowly Cubs and despite stellar performances from select players, the Yankees lost a series to Chicago in one of the worst ways possible. Barreling toward last place and with their season hanging by a thread, the Yankees need to make drastic changes. And one of those changes has to be forcing players — no matter how beloved they are — to take responsibility for their mistakes.