SAN DIEGO — The Yankees walked into Petco Park this week carrying a problem with no clean answer. By Friday night, a Trent Grisham hamstring injury may have answered it for them.
For weeks, the question hanging over the Yankees outfield had grown louder. Aaron Judge is closing in on a return from a fractured rib. Cody Bellinger was locked into left. Once the captain slotted back into right, someone had to lose at-bats, and inside the Yankees clubhouse the debate had narrowed to two names moving in opposite directions.
One was a slumping veteran with two Gold Gloves and the slowest legs of any center fielder in the sport. The other was a 25-year-old rookie who grew up 30 minutes up the freeway and had spent two months forcing his way into the Yankees lineup.
New York never had to choose. The decision, at least for now, began to make itself the moment its center fielder pulled up lame on the basepaths.
A stolen-base attempt quietly changed Yankees’ night
Trent Grisham walked to lead off the second inning against Walker Buehler, then was thrown out trying to steal second. That was the moment, he said afterward, that something grabbed in his right leg. He stayed in the game.
An inning later, a soft Xander Bogaerts flare dropped in front of him in shallow center for an RBI single he could not reach. When the frame ended, Grisham returned to the dugout, tapped a member of the training staff, and disappeared down the tunnel toward the clubhouse.
That was the last the Yankees saw of him Friday. Grisham exited the series opener against the Padres in the bottom of the third inning with right hamstring discomfort, and a team already bracing for a roster crunch may have just had one wrinkle ironed out for it.
New York lost the game 3-2 in 10 innings on Luis Campusano’s walk-off homer, but the lasting fallout could be the injury that reshapes the Yankees outfield down the stretch.
Heliot Ramos replaced him, sliding into right field as Spencer Jones moved to center for the rest of the night.
Manager Aaron Boone did not pin the Bogaerts hit on the injury.
“I thought right off the bat, I turned and went, ‘Dang,'” Boone said. “That was my read right away. I’d have to look. I think he was playing pretty deep.”
Boone braces for imaging and possibly another IL stint
For the Yankees, the bigger question is what the imaging shows. Boone said the Yankees would likely send Grisham for tests, with no immediate clarity on whether another injured list stint is coming.
“It seems like an injury,” Boone said. “Not sure yet if it’s an IL or not, but it certainly could be.”
Grisham has been here before. A strained right hamstring landed him on the injured list on June 13, and he did not return until early July. He has insisted since then that the hamstring stopped bothering him. He said Friday’s issue felt different, located in another spot.
The veteran, one of the longest-tenured Yankees regulars, met the timing with a shrug.
“It’s disappointing, for sure, but that’s part of the game,” Grisham said. “We know what we’re signing up for. So hopefully it’s nothing too problematic.”
Injury eases Yankees’ Judge-fueled roster crunch
Had everyone stayed healthy, Judge’s return would have forced the Yankees into an uncomfortable corner. Optioning Spencer Jones back to Triple-A was the move that preserved outfield depth. Cutting a veteran like utilityman Amed Rosario was the other path. Neither was appealing. A Grisham IL stint, if it comes, removes the need for the Yankees to make that call at all, at least until the roster math changes again.
It also hands Jones something he has earned. The San Diego native, born in Encinitas and a product of La Costa Canyon High in Carlsbad, entered Friday hitting .250 with an .804 OPS, nine home runs, 26 RBI and eight steals over 57 games since his second call-up of the season. He had crushed lefties, a group the left-handed-hitting Grisham has struggled against. He capped his first big league game at Petco with a go-ahead single off Padres closer Mason Miller in the 10th before the walk-off erased it.
Jones knows the glovework is the sticking point.
“I feel good defensively,” Jones said. “I think it’s just about getting reads and repetitions. We’ll see as the days move on what’s going on. But I’m just going to keep playing.”
A contract-year homecoming turns sour
The numbers behind the debate are stark. Grisham entered Friday last among qualified center fielders in outs above average at minus-6 and tied for second-to-last in defensive runs saved at minus-7. For a two-time Gold Glover, the slide has been steep, and his .211 average with a .702 OPS gave the Yankees little cover at the plate to justify keeping his glove in center.
That is the exclusive wrinkle few outside the clubhouse will note. Grisham is an impending free agent, playing this season on a qualifying offer worth just over $22 million that he accepted last winter.
He arrived in New York alongside Juan Soto in the seven-player blockbuster with the Padres in December 2023. Friday marked his return to the ballpark where his big league career began, and it ended with him limping toward an uncertain finish to a contract year.
What comes next for Jones and Yankees outfield
The ripple effects reach the rest of the Yankees roster. Should Grisham hit the IL, the Yankees could summon an outfielder such as Jasson Dominguez as a short-term fill-in. Judge, meanwhile, could be back during the upcoming homestand, possibly without a minor league rehab assignment. Once he returns, whoever is recalled would likely be the one sent back down.
New York sits 80-61, four games behind Tampa Bay in the American League East and clinging to the top American League wild card with fewer than 20 games to play. The Yankees never wanted their outfield logjam solved this way. It may have been solved anyway.
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