Gleyber Torres was finally exposed last night by the YES Network. Now, keep in mind that YES never highlights Yankee players who are struggling, not performing, in a slump, etc. Never in a graphic on the screen. SU believes that Gleyber is a good guy and was an excellent player a few years ago early in his career. But he bulked up one off season to hit more home runs and has been a shadow of his former self since then. He is a free agent after this season and has been pretty awful all year.

SU’s beef with Gleyber is that he does not hustle running to first base on ground balls. Never. Typically, no one says anything about it. Last night in the 8th inning, after Judge’s grand slam, Gleyber hit a slow ground ball to shortstop. You thought initially if he ran hard, could be a close play at first base. Nope. He was about 2/3 of the way there when the throw arrived. Incredibly, after the commercial break, YES showed the replay of him running – er make that jogging – and there was some brief discussion about it. On the post-game show, they called him out on it. SU does not know if Boone commented but this has been going on all season. If you are hitting .300, you can get away with it. He is clearly pressing in his walk year. But it’s a really bad look. Just run hard. Derek Jeter was not the same player late in his career and he hit a million ground balls – always ran hard to first base. You know he was frustrated but he played the right way.

As noted last week, the Yankees are in trouble. The bullpen is a bunch of no name guys now with all of the injuries. The bench was already non-existent and the annual Stanton injury comes at a bad time. Dominguez would have been called up to replace him but he has an oblique injury and will be out 8 weeks. The Yankees signed JD Davis (DFA’d by Oakland – that should say it all) and he won’t be the answer. LeMahieu is hitting .170 with no extra base hits. Great first half record but the AL East is going to tighten up now as Boston is playing well.

The challenge for Cashman is that about 2/3 of the MLB Clubs are in the Wild Card chase and will not be sellers. So, fewer choices for upgrades at the trade deadline.

The Mets are on the upswing – looking so much better now. SU is glad to see that and they are an easy team to root for.

SU is not optimistic about the Yankees. Brian Cashman will be earning his salary in the next 5 weeks.

So, we start with the good news: the return of Gerrit Cole on Wednesday to start against Baltimore. Ok, that is it.

Now, today’s injury report: reliever Ian Hamilton goes on the IL with a lat strain – out 3 – 4 weeks. Cody Poteet who has been the 5th starter has a right tricep strain and will not throw for 1 – 2 weeks. Jasson Dominguez who is rehabbing from Tommy John surgery is awaiting results from his MRI.

SU says that the bullpen is the team’s greatest weakness and they were already not that reliable. Yes, they have the best record in the AL and all that but the Yankees are below .500 vs. the AL East. They have feasted on the bad teams in MLB this year and there are many that fall into that category. Judge and Soto have carried them with assists from Volpe and Verdugo. The rest of the lineup – not so much. Starting pitching has been lights out and you know that will not continue all year. For SU, the goal has to be the World Series this season and I believe the bullpen is going to hold them back in the end.

Something to watch for.