Aaron Boone’s Gleyber Torres benching won’t solve all of Yankees’ problems

It’s become clear now. Gleyber Torres is taking the term “walk year” a little too literally. 

Yankees manager Aaron Boone was more revelatory the day after he abandoned character and pulled free-agent-to-be Torres for his controversial, crushed walk-on single. However, it still isn’t known exactly why Boone — after watching Torres occasionally play at half speed over more than a half-decade — finally on Friday removed Torres from a game for failing to hustle. 

I mean, this is seven years of steady, unrepentant nonchalance. Was this baseball’s example of a seven-year itch? Did Boone finally hit his limit? Did someone from above signal to Boone that enough was enough?

And why did Boone wait a half inning to lift Torres? While the manager first suggested after Friday’s game he didn’t want to disrupt Oswaldo Cabrera from his bench perch, Boone conceded on Saturday that by eschewing the option to pull Torres off the field, he also hoped to limit the “theater.” 

However this was decided, bravo to Boone. 

This sort of casualness carried on too long already. Boone called it a “learning experience” for all, and while I’d suggest this wasn’t exactly an honors class since it took until Torres is two months from freedom, this could well become a turning point for an inconsistent squad. (They did beat a B-lineup Blue Jays team 8-3 Saturday.) 

Yes, the Yankees remain tied atop the allegedly tough AL East. But this group needs a boost — actually, a few boosts. While the other allegedly great teams — the Phillies and rival Orioles — are somehow stinking a lot worse lately, it’s becoming clearer here: it’ll take more than two superstars to comprise a champion. 

The first lift came when Brian Cashman and Co. imported energetic, dynamic Jazz Chisholm Jr., who’s more talented and famous (along with superstars Aaron Judge, Bryce Harper and Shohei Ohtani, he’s a past cover boy of the “MLB The Show” video game) than his solid résumé suggests. Chisholm — who told me Saturday he begged his minors coaches to let him play third base — immediately embraced third, which, to borrow a phrase from great American and Angels manager Ron Washington, is incredibly difficult. 

Chisholm brings panache to a mostly staid clubhouse that needed it. He also provides an accidental counterpoint to Torres’ too-cool approach. 

Quick reminder: Here’s how the two youngish infielders responded when the subject of third base naturally came up. (It arose because DJ LeMahieu, now baseball’s most expensive defensive replacement, looks like he’s on his last legs at bat.) 

Chisholm said, sure, give me a shot. (That’s a paraphrase.) 

Torres said: “I’m a second baseman. I play second.” (Unfortunately, that’s a direct quote.) 

While Torres appropriately and readily admitted the obvious, that his lack of hustle on the off-the-wall single was his fault, it remains mysterious why he didn’t know it was wrong to play at his own pace since arriving from Chicago. (To be fair, that might have something to do with no one saying anything in forever.) 

Boone suggested he didn’t do it to get Torres going — he’s already going better, at least by the early-season standard he set — but maybe it wakes up his whole underachieving team. Torres’ lack of hustle probably cost the Yankees a base in defeat, but maybe this surprising turn shocks a team that used to be 29 games over but isn’t anymore. 

Frankly, there are bigger problems than a bag here or there. 

The biggest one might be the rotation that isn’t close to reaching its potential. We know that because we saw how good they all could be in the first half, and that was before reigning Cy Young winner Gerrit Cole returned. 

Carlos Rodon, Marcus Stroman and Luis Gil pitched at All-Star level early. But none of them is consistently quite that good lately. And Cole is frustrated not being himself yet. One good, one bad isn’t his thing. 

The Yankees understood at the deadline they needed to upgrade. But in an all-time sellers market, it was the worst time ever to buy a starter. 

The Yankees were told with a week to go they “didn’t match up” for White Sox star reliever-turned-starter Garrett Crochet, who didn’t go anywhere after it was revealed by The Post that he sought an extension to pitch in October. 

They pulled back or backed out on Jack Flaherty after his medicals highlighted a lower back situation despite Flaherty’s amazing 2024 seven-to-one strike-to-walk rate. 

And in the big one, the Yankees balked at the Giants’ insistence that they take Blake Snell’s contract as is, including a $30 million 2025 player option. The Yankees want to use that loot to retain Juan Soto, who’s one-half of the best one-two punch in MLB (well, almost half; Judge does have 41 home runs after all). 

That may be a mistake as Snell, who’d never before pitched into the ninth inning, threw a no-hitter Friday, lowering his ERA over his last five games to 0.55. That’s the ace the Yankees need! In the grand scheme of things, Torres’ indifferent baserunning and the loss of a base may wind up being a one-day diversion compared to that Snell call.