BIRD PROGRESSING
KANSAS CITY — Gleyber Torres really fouled up. The Yankees’ top prospect was benched during Wednesday night’s minor-league game for not running out a ball that landed in fair territory.
Torres said he believed the ball was going to go foul, but Double-A Trenton manager Bobby Mitchell didn’t see it that way and yanked the prized talent.
“(Gleyber’s) explanation was he lost track of the ball,” Yankees GM Brian Cashman said Thursday. “He didn’t do it on purpose, but the manager had the discretion to pull him if he felt it was warranted, so he did.”
Mitchell explained the decision and incident in his game report. “Our managers are empowered to make decisions like that. They have that ability, and then they explain it in the report,” Cashman said. “It sends a message to all involved.”
Cashman considers the incident in the past at this point. Torres, the 20-year-old shortstop, was back in the lineup on Thursday and hit his fourth homer of the year. Torres now has homered three times in his past four games. Prior to Thursday’s game, he was 30-for-105 (.286).
“He’s doing well,” Cashman said. “We will advance him when we feel he’s ready. He’s obviously where we think he should be right now, and if we feel we should move him to the next level, we’ll do it.”
Joe Girardi didn’t seem too concerned about the incident, saying Torres’ work-ethic during spring training was “tremendous.”
Pitching prospects Chance Adams and Domingo German were recently promoted to Triple-A Scranton.
Clint Frazier hit his sixth homer of the year for the RailRiders on Thursday. Cashman reiterated that Frazier has been striking the ball well all season but has run into some bad luck and bad umpiring. “He’s starting to get results that if you continue to maintain your same approach come with that,” Cashman said.
Greg Bird (ankle bone bruise) started doing some light running on Thursday, and the Yankees hope he can begin baseball activities when they return home from Tampa after the weekend, Joe Girardi said.
Bird has been on the disabled list since May 2, rehabbing in New York. He started the season 6-for-60 at the plate while trying to play through the injury.