How Yankees’ Gleyber Torres, Didi Gregorius victory dance became a thing

Here’s the backstory on the victory dance Yankees stars Gleyber Torres and Didi Gregorius seem to do all the time these days.

NEW YORK — It looks like the start of a boring handshake until the right hands of Didi Gregorius and Gelyber Torres pass, slide up each other’s forearms and tap the other’s elbow.

Then starts “Dancing with the Stars” — the Yankees‘ middle infield edition.

Gregorius and Torres look down and begin to strut — slowly, and in one place. It’s elbow to opposing knee, and they do it four times. They finish by lifting both hand and pushing them to the right, as if they’re shoving their plates of food off a table.

“The lineup is awesome. Everybody does their job, everybody helps the team. I just try to help my team too, try to put in something, hit or defense. I try to help and try to win.” – @TorresGleyber pic.twitter.com/QJb7ztZs3f

— Bryan Hoch (@BryanHoch) May 22, 2018

They don’t have a name for it. They just do it whenever one of them does something good, which has been a lot lately.

The last time Gregorius and Torres danced was right after the Yankees beat the Angels, 2-1, at Yankee Stadium on Friday night.

They do it after every win and when the other scores or hits a home run. Which means they did it twice Friday, including after Torres homered in the seventh inning — his second RBI of the game — to give the Yankees the lead for good.

But where did it come from? 

“I think it was Didi’s idea,” Torres said.

“He brought it up,” Gregorius said.

Uh, what?

Well, pair agreed it went something like this: 

Gregorius has been the Yankees’ everyday shortstop since taking over for Derek Jeter in 2015. He said he’s made it a point to create some kind of gesture with his double-play mate — a handshake or a dance move that’s unique to them, something over which they can bond.

With Starlin Castro, whom the Yankees traded to the Marlins in the offseason, Gregorius would miss their top high five, hit their bottom five on the way back around and then they would leap in the air and bump hips. Gregorius said he did something similar with Tyler Wade.

“I have something with everybody,” Gregorius said.

Is this the Yankees’ lineup with Bird?

Which means, in spring training, Gregorius tried to help create and memorize different moves with six different players: Torres, Wade, Neil Walker, Danny Espinosa, Ronald Torreyes and Jace Peterson. 

As for the dance with Torres, the process was simple. Gregorius said he told the 21-year-old to make something up and he would roll with it.

Gregorius loves to dance. “Any music I know that I can dance to, I’ll dance to it,” he said. “I’m not picky.”

Torres? Not so much. Still, the Venezuela native listens to salsa and to American pop music, and the strut was the first thing that came to mind.

“I saw that everyone had something with Didi whenever we win or do something great,” Torres said. “So we did that.” 

Center fielder Aaron Hicks has loved watching it.

He said he saw it as an extension of the outfielders’ bonding move in which Hicks and Aaron Judge leap as high as they can and bump each other. Sometimes Brett Gardner gets in on the act, but he doesn’t have their hops.

“We all have things with each other,” Hicks said. “It’s just kind of how our team chemistry is.”

Brendan Kuty may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @BrendanKutyNJ. Find NJ.com Yankees on Facebook.