Why Yankees think Didi Gregorius is in career-worst slump

Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius was benched for Saturday night’s game in Kansas City and he won’t be at shortstop on Sunday, either.

Update: Ronald Torreyes started at shortstop on Saturday night and he’ll be back there starting again on Sunday instead of slumping regular Didi Gregorius.

KANSAS CITY — While some of his Yankees teammates were doing post-game interviews following Friday night’s loss, shortstop Didi Gregorius found out from manager Aaron Boone that he wouldn’t be starting the next day.

This was intended to be a mental break for Gregorius, who is having the worst month of his career after being the American League Player of the Month for April.

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And so, a day after watching video of the Kansas City Royals’ starter on his iPad while waiting for Friday’s BP to begin, Gregorius used the same time on Saturday to do a little relaxing on a recliner and play cards with a teammate.

“I felt like it was a good day to have him down and take a breath,” Boone said before the Yankees’ 8-3 win over the Royals.

It was a good time because the Royals started a left-hander, Danny Duffy, and Gregorius, a left-handed hitter, hasn’t been hitting any pitching of late.

With his 0 for 4 in the Yanks’ 5-2 loss to the Royals on Friday night, Gregorius was riding a shockingly horrific 1-for-42 slump over his last 10 games and was 6 for 66 over his last 16.

Gregorius’ average has dropped from .368 with 10 homers and 30 RBIs in 25 games through April 27 to .248 with 10 homers and 31 RBIs in 41 games during a slump that by far has been the worst of his career.

What’s going on?

Gregorius didn’t talk to reporters before Saturday’s game, but Boone addressed the topic at length in his pre-game media session.

“I think it’s a matter of he’s not in a real strong powerful position like he was most of the first month where he could do damage,” Boone said. “Sometimes right now when he’s barreling balls, it’s not quite with the impact just because he’s so good at touching the ball if he decides to swing.”

Boone went to explain how Gregorius makes contact on pitches that many other big leaguers don’t hit, but that they’d mostly led to groundouts, flyouts or popups during his slump.

“I think sometimes we’ve seen through this stretch where he’s hit frankly a fair number of balls on the nose, but maybe not with that slug impact that we’re used to seeing,” Boone added. “I think part of (the reason for) that is because he’s so good at getting the barrel to the ball. When he goes to swing, if he’s not in a great position to really hit it with authority, it results in putting it into play for an out sometimes. Sometimes it can be a result of something he’s really skilled it.”

Boone is hoping Gregorius’ mental break on Saturday sparks a long-time-coming end to his slump. 

“To me, it’s about him just getting into a real strong hitting position each and every time he does go to fire, and I think it’s be around the corner,” Boone said.

Randy Miller may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.