TAMPA, Fla — The Yankees and OF Randal Grichuk are in agreement on a minor league contract with an invite to spring training. Jack Curry was the first to report the news.
Grichuk’s 2025 Season
Grichuk’s 2025 season was a statistical step back from his resurgent 2024, as he struggled to find consistency across 113 games split between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Kansas City Royals. Finishing the year with an underwhelming .228/.273/.401 slash line, Grichuk contributed 9 home runs and 27 RBI in 293 plate appearances. While he started the season as a serviceable bench piece in Arizona, his production dipped significantly following a July trade to Kansas City, where he hit just .206 with a 56 wRC+.
Despite the surface-level struggles, underlying metrics like a 92.4 MPH average exit velocity and an 11.7% barrel rate suggest he was the victim of some bad luck, posting an expected slugging percentage of .457 that far outpaced his actual results.
Grichuk’s Career Reputation
For the Yankees, the primary appeal of the 34-year-old veteran remains his career-long track record of punishing left-handed pitching. Over 12 major league seasons, Grichuk has maintained a robust .813 OPS and a .500 slugging percentage against southpaws, providing the exact type of right-handed power the Yankees’ lefty-heavy lineup currently lacks. Even in a down 2025, he managed to launch 7 of his 9 home runs against lefties.
While his .703 OPS against left-handers last season was below his career average, New York is betting that his historic ability to neutralize left-handed specialists — highlighted by a dominant .941 OPS against them from 2021 to 2024 — will resurface in a part-time platoon role.
The great thing about this move is that there is no risk. If Grichuk struggles in spring training, he gets cut. If he does break camp with the Yankees, then he will likely play in center field against lefties instead of Trent Grisham.
Either way, it’s a low-risk, high-reward signing that should give the Yankees a lot of options against lefty pitching and makes the bench deep.