Gleyber Torres got the night off on Tuesday, while Isiah Kiner-Falefa went 1-for-4 with a strikeout, dropping his season OPS to a lowly .629.
It was a rare night off for Torres, who is fourth on the Yankees in plate appearances this season, while Kiner-Falefa is not far behind at sixth.
The two have been durable, and since the All-Star break, terrible.
Some say the best ability is availability, but having the two middle infielders as fixtures in the lineup has been killing the Yankees for nearly two months. Torres, who looked to be trending back towards the two-time All-Star he was at the beginning of his career with a very strong first half, has collapsed in tremendous fashion since the break, while Kiner-Falefa has only continued his brutal struggles at the plate since the start of the season. Torres’ prolonged slump has highlighted just how little the Yanks are getting offensively from the middle of the infield, has the two have combined to hit just .212 since the All-Star break.
Torres’ numbers have been putrid compared to his first half. He is slashing .187/.221/.295 since the break, or worse than Joey Gallo before he was traded. Torres has just seven extra-base hits in his last 34 games, and has 42 strikeouts against just five walks. The Yankees’ struggles have run parallel with Torres’ drastic dropoff, which could very well be leading to the end of his time in pinstripes.
As for Kiner-Falefa, he was always seen as a shortstop with an expiration date with Anthony Volpe waiting in the minors, and Oswald Peraza lurking in Scranton. But Kiner-Falefa hasn’t even been able to serve as a suitable stopgap. He is posting a .595 OPS since the break, and his .629 OPS for the entire season isn’t much better. As for his power numbers, they were never there, with his home run over the Monster in Boston last month serving as the only long ball of the season despite logging 428 plate appearances.
DJ LeMahieu’s bat cooled off with his toe injury, and, up until recently, Anthony Rizzo had fallen off a bit as well amid back issues. Giancarlo Stanton was also on the shelf with an Achilles issue. Those absences and slumps only further highlighted how much of a detriment the Yankees’ middle infielders have been to their lineup for either the whole season or since the break, and there are no signs of it improving.
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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