The Yankees are facing a concerning Randal Grichuk problem
Saturday evening towards the Rays supplied the clearest attainable instance of what the New York Yankees are giving freely by maintaining Randal Grichuk on this roster. Ninth inning, probability to take the lead, and Grichuk stepped to the plate and swung on the first pitch he noticed, popping it harmlessly to middle discipline. The inning was over earlier than it had any probability to develop. Another wasted alternative, one other second the place the bench produced precisely what everybody watching knew it was going to provide.
Grichuk is 0-for-10 to open the season. He has not reached base eleven. The Yankees have used him in pinch-hit and pinch-run conditions, which is exactly the place you want your bench to ship, and he has delivered nothing. At some level the maths turns into unavoidable: a participant who can’t get on base shouldn’t be a bench participant, he’s a roster spot that’s costing you out in moments that matter.
What Grichuk Is and Is Not
Grichuk has all the time been a streaky right-handed bat with pull-side energy towards left-handed pitching. When he’s sizzling, he’s genuinely helpful. When he’s chilly, he’s primarily an computerized out, and nothing about his profile suggests he’s able to turning a sequence round by sheer on-base means or bat-to-ball ability. He is a particular device for a particular matchup, and proper now the Yankees are deploying him in conditions that require one thing he has by no means been.
The bigger problem is that the bench doesn’t have a lot depth behind it. When Boone reaches for his choices in a late-inning state of affairs, Grichuk is likely one of the first names on the cardboard. Until that adjustments, nights like Saturday are going to maintain taking place.
The Dominguez Case Is Getting Stronger
In Triple-A, Jasson Dominguez is doing every part the Yankees might ask from a participant in his place. Through 17 video games with Scranton, he is hitting .347/.389/.673 with 4 house runs, 11 RBIs, and a 166 wRC+, which means he has been 66 p.c higher than the typical Triple-A hitter within the early going. The energy numbers are actual. The contact has been constant. The 23-year-old isn’t just surviving in Triple-A, he’s punishing it.
The Yankees’ choice has all the time been to provide him every day at-bats within the minors relatively than a bench function within the majors. That logic nonetheless holds as a philosophical place. A younger participant who wants growth time advantages extra from enjoying every single day in Scranton than from sitting on a big-league bench ready for a spot begin. But the calculation adjustments when the choice is maintaining a participant on the lively roster who’s actively stealing the group in essential conditions.
Grichuk sitting on 0-for-10 with a first-pitch pop-up within the ninth inning of a recreation the Yankees wanted to win shouldn’t be impartial. That is a damaging contribution, and a younger participant with Dominguez’s offensive upside is nearly definitely a higher choice at this level whatever the growth philosophy.
The protection stays the reliable concern with Dominguez, because it has been all spring and all through his time within the group. His routes in left discipline and his reads off the bat have been inconsistent, and the Yankees know that. But a participant who’s batting .347 with 4 house runs and a 166 wRC+ in Triple-A is producing at a degree that calls for a roster dialog, particularly when the participant he would substitute has produced completely nothing.
Boone has choices. Dominguez is one telephone name away. The longer the Yankees wait on this, the extra doubtless it’s that one other ninth inning comes together with Grichuk on the plate in a second the group wants somebody higher.
