Saturday evening towards the Rays provided the clearest doable instance of what the New York Yankees are freely giving by holding Randal Grichuk on this roster. Ninth inning, likelihood to take the lead, and Grichuk stepped to the plate and swung on the first pitch he noticed, popping it harmlessly to middle subject. The inning was over earlier than it had any likelihood 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 as soon as. 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 mathematics turns into unavoidable: a participant who can not get on base is just not a bench participant, he’s a roster spot that’s costing you outs 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 automated out, and nothing about his profile suggests he’s able to turning a sequence round via sheer on-base capacity or bat-to-ball ability. He is a particular software 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 him. When Boone reaches for his choices in a late-inning scenario, Grichuk is without doubt one of the first names on the cardboard. Until that modifications, nights like Saturday are going to maintain occurring.
The Dominguez Case Is Getting Stronger
In Triple-A, Jasson Dominguez is doing the whole lot 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+, that means he has been 66 % 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’ desire has all the time been to offer him day by day at-bats within the minors reasonably than a bench position within the majors. That logic nonetheless holds as a philosophical place. A younger participant who wants improvement time advantages extra from taking part in each day in Scranton than from sitting on a big-league bench ready for a spot begin. But the calculation modifications when the choice is holding a participant on the energetic roster who’s actively hurting 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 is just not impartial. That is a destructive contribution, and a younger participant with Dominguez’s offensive upside is nearly actually a higher possibility at this level whatever the improvement 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 subject 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 stage that calls for a roster dialog, particularly when the participant he would exchange has produced completely nothing.
Boone has choices. Dominguez is one cellphone name away. The longer the Yankees wait on this, the extra seemingly it’s that one other ninth inning comes together with Grichuk on the plate in a second the group wants somebody higher.
