Gleyber Torres' brutally timed All-Star nod has Yankees fans down even worse

Things were already not going great for the New York Yankees and their fans. In fact, that's putting it lightly: After dropping the first two games of a crucial series against the Toronto Blue Jays to start the week, the team came out on Wednesday night and ... promptly dug themselves a 7-0 hole in the bottom of the first. Rookie Will Warren suffered through easily the worst start of his young career, and just like that, New York was staring down a third straight loss that would drop them back into a tie for the AL East lead. In the words of Joe Girardi: It's not what you want.

And as is so often the case in baseball, when it rains, it pours. It wasn't enough for Yankees fans to watch their team immolate in real time against a division rival. No, they needed a little insult added to that injury. And so the baseball gods provided: While New York was busy getting embarrassed, Gleyber Torres — you know, the same player Brian Cashman all but physically kicked to the curb after last season ended — was being named the starter at second base for the AL in the 2025 MLB All-Star Game.

Torres has been a rock in the middle of the Detroit Tigers' lineup, hitting .284/.386/.437 while serving as a veteran leader for the team with the best record in the American League. Meanwhile, the Yankees are so short on infielders that they're playing DJ LeMahieu at second base while forcing Jazz Chisholm Jr. out of position at third. That's not a good look, especially considering that Torres signed with Detroit over the winter for just one year and $15 million.

That production sure would look nice in New York's infield right now, and Yankees fans are busy wishing they could've appreciated what they had before it was gone.

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Gleyber Torres named All-Star Game starter at worst possible time for Yankees fans

Look, in fairness to Cashman, most Yankees fans were also sick of Torres on the heels of the team's loss in the 2024 World Series. He certainly wasn't a bad player, but he was frequently an exasperating one, solid at the plate but maddening both in the field and on the bases. You could understand why New York would decide that it had had enough of the mental errors.

But it's also true that Torres' reputation masked the fact that he was, you know, a pretty good big-league starter. That's far from nothing, and it's far better than what the Yankees have trotted out at second base for most of this season. And now fans are wondering how Cashman could've misplayed this so badly.

It's hard to blame them, really. Looking to upgrade on Torres is one thing; but so stubbornly committing to moving on that you burn the bridge and rule out a reunion even after it became clear that he was the best option at the position last offseason? That's just cutting off your nose to spite your face, and it's truly baffling that Cashman didn't show more urgency in adding infield talent to what was a glaring position of need.

It was hard to predict that Torres would have a career year at the plate. It wasn't hard to predict that he'd be better than LeMahieu, and now Yankees fans have to lie in the bed that Cashman made for them.