Feb. 26: Grichuk will earn a $2.5MM base salary if he makes the Yankees’ roster, per Joel Sherman of the New York Post.
Feb. 25: The Yankees are in agreement with veteran outfielder Randal Grichuk on a minor league contract, reports Jack Curry of The Yes Network. The Paragon Sports International client will be in camp as a non-roster invitee.
Joel Sherman of The New York Post reported this week that the Yankees continued to look for a righty-hitting platoon bat. Grichuk fits the bill without commanding a guaranteed roster spot. The 34-year-old will try to play his way into a spot on Aaron Boone’s bench during Spring Training. If he does, he’d take at-bats from Trent Grisham against left-handed pitching. Cody Bellinger is one of the best left-on-left hitters in MLB, so he’d play center field with Grichuk drawing into the corner opposite Aaron Judge.
Grichuk isn’t coming off a great season. He’d hit at a league average level for the Diamondbacks and was traded to the Royals at the deadline. His bat cratered in Kansas City, leaving him with a .228/.273/.401 slash line across 293 trips to the plate. That included an underwhelming .227/.273/.430 mark in 183 plate appearances with the platoon advantage.
The 11-year MLB veteran had destroyed lefty pitching in the three preceding seasons. Between 2022-24, he put up a .317/.367/.573 mark against southpaws. He connected on 25 home runs, 34 doubles and four triples in fewer than 500 plate appearances. He had the fifth-highest OPS against lefties over that stretch (min. 450 PAs).
That version of Grichuk would obviously be an excellent piece to have off the bench. His strikeout rate against lefties climbed nearly seven percentage points a year ago, so there’s no guarantee he’ll get back to his 2022-24 form. He’s not going to get a huge sample of short side platoon at-bats during Spring Training, leaving the Yankees with an interesting call in whether to have him round out their bench.
Jasson Domínguez already looked likely to begin the season in Triple-A. If Grichuk makes the team, that’s an inevitability barring multiple Spring Training injuries. It’d leave the Yankees with a very right-handed bench. Paul Goldschmidt and Amed Rosario are locks, leaving backup catcher J.C. Escarra as the only lefty bench bat in that scenario. Oswaldo Cabrera would either start the season in Triple-A or on the injured list, while out-of-options Jorbit Vivas would be traded or placed on waivers.
The Yankees probably need to carry Grichuk on the Opening Day roster to keep him in the organization. He’s an Article XX(b) free agent — a veteran who finished last season on an MLB roster. Those players who sign non-roster invites have three guaranteed opt-out dates under the collective bargaining agreement: five days before Opening Day, May 1, and June 1. Grichuk can return to the open market at the end of Spring Training if he doesn’t break camp with New York.
The pieces are in place! The deck chairs rearranged! Full steam ahead into that iceberg. What’s the worst that can happen?
TR
Imagine having such a rotted brain that you think that a comment comparing a disaster in which 1500 people died to a baseball team that is almost certainly one of the better ones in the league this season is a good one.
He’s not smart enough to comprehend what you said but we can all enjoy it
titanic was a psyop, yo
It definitely was not an accident.
Bro it’s been 114 years
choof
“it’s been 114 years”
Not at all the point
I see your point but I think you’re taking everything a bit too seriously….
choof
And I think The Raven is taking things a bit too seriously
Everything that Jazzy said.
I bet you’re fun at parties!
grean
I bet we’re not at the same parties if you think the MLBTR comment section is at like a party
@JUJH
Where da party at, yo?! Or we going to White Castle?
Ain’t no party like a FanGraphs comment section party, yo!
My man, Mr. White! Sabermetrics, b**ch!
Lighten up snowflake.
Just so glad he’s not playing against us anymore truthfully, since he’s a Yankee killer.
I mean he was drafted before a player named Michael Trout. So yes, what could possibly go wrong?
So were 24 others….
He’s been alternating between bad and good at the plate the past few years but worth a flier for RH depth
A+ depth potential platoon.
There’s that right-handed bat corner outfielder that Cashman wanted to get. He probably makes the team, so I doubt he doesn’t break camp in Spring Training.
I’m on the other side of the fence. Barring outfielder injuries, he’s released before O.D.
He might yet still have some gas left in the tank. Would you prefer the Martian be your fourth outfielder?
If I was a Yankee fan, yes I’d prefer the Martian.
I agree. Organizational depth for the spring.
He didnt have much of a season last year but I’m still a bit surprised he had to settle for a minor league deal.
-.8 WAR will do that to you.
He’s got Guts though
Cards are convinced Angel Velazquez is the answer to their right-handed power dreams.
He’s declining and not very good at this stage of the game.
Definitely worth taking a flyer on him on a minor league deal. I would have.
Thought the Cardinals should have picked him up. I wonder if he was offered a major league contract and took the Yankees deal.
Sounds like a Yankee signing. Maybe not cause all the talk out of New York seems to be how close they were able to keep the same roster from last season. Id understand that if you are the Blue Jays but not a mediocre team that overachieved
The Yankees underachieved during the regular season , they should have had a 98-64 record given their runs scored/runs allowed metrics. It’s the Blue Jays who actually overachieved.
literally all of those Ls were due to Devin
ISoaB
“The Yankees underachieved during the regular season”
Yep. Even better than pythag, they were the best team in baseball based on baseruns (how well their hitters hit, runners ran, pitchers pitched and defenders defended stripped of things like sequencing).
fangraphs.com/standings/pythagorean-baseruns
I need to learn more about base runs and their significance and how they’re utilized, thank you for the reminder.
It’s how many runs a team would be expected to score based off how many walks, hits, extra base hits, steals, etc they got.
So, a home run and then a single counts the same as a single and then a home run.
Then the same for how many runs they would be expected to allow.
I get “base runs” and “run value” mixed up because they are such generic terms. And they are hard to run searches on because of that. Run value has always perplexed me; I guess it’s been around a long time and certain sabermetricians are quite fond of it.
What Jazz is saying is sequencing matters.
Devin Williams blown saves will crush pythagorean win-loss expectations. Luke Weaver didn’t help regression towards the mean.
I noticed that over the years. The Yankees routinely beat their pythagorean prediction when Mariano was there. It’s easier for the precise order of homeruns, walks, singles, etc. to even out over a full season, than it is for the high leverage work of an ace reliever.
Hahahahaha! Thanks needed that with my coffee, gor.
The fearsome foe has become a friend.
Welcome, Randal.
Solid bench piece for the Yankees. Surprised it took this long for them to sign him
Wonder if they would have preferred Slater for defense after they traded for him at the deadline but he went to the Tigers on a minors deal, $2 mil in the majors. We’ll see how things shake out at the end of spring.
I dig it. Always thought he’d be a good fit here and I can bet there are comments of me saying that year in and year out. Let’s see if it works out now even if only for the short term, as although I can see this pushing Jasson to the minors, I don’t forsee that being too long of a stint.
I hope he regularly tees off on Blowsox lefties and grinds out a respectable showing in the outfield wearing the pinstripes. He’s been money esp when donning a Blue Jays cap. He’s got talent and just needs to re-gain the AL East competitiveness those small market environments and coaching staffs might have been doing the guy wrong. I’d love to see him do well. Welcome to Tampa Bay; Geo Steinbrenner Field. Soak it in down there and bring your talents to the Bronx bro!👏
Everytime I see Grichuk, I want to say gesundheit. 😁
Seriously, I think it is a good signing for them.
There IS such a thing as clutch hitting, and Grichuk has always been a great clutch hitter.
It is not a magical, mystical skill, btw: it is the ability to recognize how the pitcher is pitching you, and to adjust your swing *within the at-bat* accordingly.
Should have just traded Dominguez 2 years ago. The Yankees have successfully devalued another highly touted prospect so much so that he can’t be used for a significant piece.
They’ve also ruined any success he may have on the Yankees. Lets keep signing and throwing out declining players! Can’t wait for the wildcard round loss while management blames injuries.
Domínguez was given multiple opportunities to earn a spot on the team. The elbow injury in 2023 is the only time that wasn’t his fault. He had a chance to win the LF job late in 2024 and failed. He was given the starting role as LF to begin 2025 but was outperformed by Grisham. As things stand he’s a poor defender who can’t hit left handed pitching. He can’t be any every day big leaguer until at least one of those things improves. Opening the year in AAA is best for Domínguez and the team
… becoming more apparent unfortunately that Giancarlo Stanton’s persistent elbow tendinitis now having carried over from last season into S/T that his bat might be absent from the NYY lineup come opening day😖 Due to this injury element it now seems Grichuk isn’t just some random FA right- handed swinging pick up. Let’s hope Giancarlo can work through a very painful, prolonged injury while Grichuk could very quickly prove to be an important insurance policy should Stanton not be good to roll as NYY’s DH next month🤞
Dominguez is the insurance policy for Stanton. If he could field better than Castellanos, he would have never lost his job. Its just hard to play multiple RH DHs.
Yanks scurrying for the drippings. Love to see it.
Scooping up potentially usable players on minor league contracts as the season approaches is just good business. Most teams do it. It would be malpractice to leave this stone unturned.
Thats what you needed in NY another OF . Like you need a shot in the foot.
Bell-ringer of an off-season there, Cashman. I know, it’s these little ones that are part of his genius.
Oh wow. And pardon is someone already made this joke… The Yankees are ruining baseball.
Great pickup. He still crushed the ball last year but had some bad luck on outcomes. I think the lefty masher is still in there. I thought he was a great fit for the Red Sox or Cardinals, especially on a minor league contract, but kudos to the Yankees for getting there first.
Goldy is rake’n like an old man on a fall morning.
I’m pulling for Randal. Now that he’s on a top tier team, this could be a good year for him.
No Ruffles for Stanton:
nj.com/yankees/2026/02/yankees-giancarlo-stanton-c…
Don’t open anything, Big-G. Just hit dingers.
embarrassing how stupid my team is.
This guy’s a gonna rake…
The leaves in late October after the Yanks first round exit
This is an underrated signing. I think it will work out fine.