The Yankees announced Wednesday that veteran outfielder Randal Grichuk has been designated for assignment. His spot on the roster goes to top pitching prospect Elmer Rodriguez, whose previously reported promotion to the majors is now official.
Grichuk, 34, signed a minor league deal with the Yankees over the winter and made the roster despite a shaky spring performance. The 13-year veteran was brought in as a right-handed bat to provide some punch against lefties, ideally platooning with lefty-swinging Trent Grisham, but Grichuk hasn’t found his footing in a limited role. He’s taken 33 plate appearances and delivered a meek .194/.212/.323 batting line with 10 punchouts.
It’s been a tough couple of seasons for Grichuk, who posted a .228/.273/.401 line (82 wRC+) in 293 plate appearances between Arizona and Kansas City last year. However, he’s also not far removed from a 2024 campaign that saw him post a superlative .291/.348/.528 slash (139 wRC+) during his first season with the D-backs.
Grichuk had plenty of run as a low-OBP, power-focused regular with the Blue Jays earlier in his career. He’s a lifetime .250/.297/.464 hitter with 212 homers in the big leagues. Grichuk has long been a thorn in the side of left-handed pitchers, and as he’s aged into his 30s, he’s taken on a more limited platoon role. He didn’t hit lefties in his tiny sample with the Yankees, and he struggled against them in uncharacteristic fashion last year as well. Despite the recent downturn, however, he still carries a career .268/.318/.498 line against southpaws.
The Yankees will have five days to trade Grichuk, place him on outright waivers or release him. The latter option is likeliest. Any team to acquire Grichuk or claim him would be taking on the remainder of the prorated $2.5MM salary on his minor league deal. Given his tough start to the season and last year’s struggles, that seems unlikely. If he’s released, he’ll be able to sign with any club seeking some righty-hitting corner outfield depth. Grichuk does have 3677 career innings in center, but the vast majority of that work came earlier in his career; he’s played only 147 frames in center dating back to 2023 and hasn’t graded out as a clearly above-average defender there since 2019.
Today’s swap of Rodriguez for Grichuk balances out the Yankees’ big league roster. They’ve spent the past couple days playing with 14 position players and 12 pitchers while holding off on a decision regarding Giancarlo Stanton‘s IL status. The Yankees finally placed Stanton on the IL due to a low-grade calf strain last night and replaced him with utilityman Max Schuemann, who was recalled from Triple-A. Jettisoning Grichuk and bringing up Rodriguez again gives the Yankees 13 pitchers and 13 position players, putting their bullpen back at full strength and returning them to a four-man bench.
Randal’s reaction to getting DFA’d in favor of Elmer. “Oh, fudd”
Given the general age of MLBTRs followers I think most will get this joke, but it’s sad there is an entire gen that will not and the new loony toons cartoon is just not as good.
Ha! Vewy funny! 🤣
Wheah is Wandal?
Sure Grichuk delivers a meek batting line. But one day he will inherit the earth.
It’s about time!!! He should have never been on this roster. Let the Martian play! He proved himself in spring training.
He still can’t field or hit lefties and grichuk can, that’s why dude was here. Elmer will go down for volpe after this start or next and volpe will essentially take grichuk’s spot. Jasson will have to make an enormous splash to stay up when G is ready to return
Schuemann will go down when Volpe is ready and Rodriguez will make a couple starts until Rodon returns.
He was absolutely killing lefties at AAA before he got called up. How recently did you update your data before you posted “he still can’t”.
Free Spencer Jones!
Dumb Yankee fans want to bring up a Schwarber wannabe who’s hitting only .242 at Scranton with more strikeouts than base hits.
@chucky let me apologize on behalf of the casuals. Perpetually good teams have tons of casual fans that misrepresent the fan base. The only way Jones is up this year is a long term injury to a starting OF or maybe to ben rice with belli sliding to first. I don’t think the org sees Dominguez as more than a DH right now and Jones is supposed to be an above average outfielder with a cannon arm
You’re wrong about Jasson, right about Jones.
Chuck in todays game if you are a free agent those numbers will net you at least a 5 year 125 millionmillion dollar contract. As an added bonus you might get to bat leadoff.
To do what? Be a worse version of Grisham? Ok
Free Spencer Jones is probably how get other teams interested in acquiring him.
This guy was on borrowed time from day one. Reinforcements are coming. McMahon you’re on notice. Lombard at AAA now could be in the Bronx by July
I highly doubt the Yankees DFA McMahon with nearly $30MM still owed. I think the at least give him the rest of the year then reassess in the offseason. I also don’t think we see Lombard in the big leagues until September
0 chance McMahon is off the roster this season. It would take long term injuries to volpe and caballero to even think about seeing Lombard this season.
Lombard getting the aggressive promotion to AAA is a strong indicator that the Yankees expect him up later this year. He’ll be the long term SS but could also see time at 2B and 3B this year. Lombard’s plus speed and defense will make him a valuable utility player for the stretch run and postseason.
Brewer’s should grab him up ASAP. He will flourish there.
Hope he stays in the organization. Was enjoying watching the doubles he was hitting for the yanks the past week or so.
If he passes through waivers (which I imagine he will), he could theoretically accept an outright assignment to Scranton if he doesn’t have any major league interest, given that there are currently PAs available there while Dominguez is in the majors. More likely, he refuses the assignment and signs with another team. If there are no major league offers available, I suppose he could sign a minor league deal with the Yankees, with monthly opt-outs. But this is likely the end of the line for him and the Yankees.
This dude could wind up in injury desperate Houston.
I mean, the Mets just kicked Tommy Pham to the curb and replaced him with Austin Slater. Grichuk wouldn’t be out of place in that mix.