As the Yankees look for outfield help, Randal Grichuk is a “name that has come up” in the team’s explorations, according to MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (via Twitter). Now in his second season with the Rockies, Grichuk missed most of April recovering from offseason sports hernia surgery, but has since hit .300/.364/.473 (112 wRC+) over 225 plate appearances. Grichuk is a free agent after the season and would be a pure rental for New York, and he is owed roughly $3.89MM for the remainder of the 2023 campaign. The exact of who owes Grichuk that money isn’t exactly known, as the Blue Jays were paying $4.333MM of the total $9.333MM owed to Grichuk this year, so the Rockies’ 2023 financial obligation (and thus the obligation for any trade suitor) may technically be done, depending on how Grichuk’s salary was divvied up.
Regardless, Grichuk would still count as a relatively inexpensive acquisition for the Yankees. Grichuk can play at least passable defense at all three outfield positions, making him a usefully flexible option for New York both before and after Aaron Judge returns from the injured list. While his splits indicate a lot more success at Coors Field than at away ballparks this season, Grichuk does at least have a solid track record of success at Yankee Stadium, with a .279/.333/.532 slash line and seven home runs over 120 career PA in the Bronx. The struggling Rockies are reportedly open to moving pending free agents like Grichuk, though there’s a slight question mark about his health, as Grichuk has missed Colorado’s last couple of games due to groin tightness.
Here’s more from around the NL West…
- Padres catcher Luis Campusano has missed most of the 2023 campaign after undergoing thumb surgery in early May, leaving the club to rely on the struggling Austin Nola and in-season signing Gary Sanchez behind the plate. Fortunately, Campusano appears to be nearing a return as Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune write that the backstop is in “the final stages” of his Triple-A rehab assignment, and is expected to rejoin the club during their current road trip (which runs through July 23). According to Acee, Campusano’s return will result in a timeshare with Sanchez, though the playing time specifics are expected to be “merit-based.” Sanchez has hit .197/.279/.426 (94 wRC+) in 136 plate appearances with the Padres while Campusano posted a .238/.227/.429 (70 wRC+) slash line prior to his trip to the IL, albeit in just 22 trips to the plate.
- Sticking with the Padres, the club announced today that left-hander Adrian Morejon was placed on the 15-day injured list due to right knee inflammation. It’s been a difficult road for Morejon, who has pitched just 47 2/3 innings since the start of the 2021 campaign due to a Tommy John surgery, and then an elbow sprain that sent him to the 60-day IL at the start of this season. Morejon will be replaced on the active roster by right-hander Matt Waldron, who sports a 3.86 ERA in 4 2/3 innings of work with the Padres this season.
- Luis Gonzalez underwent back surgery in March, but Giants manager Gabe Kapler told reporters (including Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle) today that the outfielder is set to begin a rehab assignment. It will take a while for Gonzalez to ramp up after the long layoff, but his recovery should line up with the August timeline recently mentioned by Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi. Gonzalez was a solid contributor to the 2022 club, hitting .254/.323/.360 over 350 PA in his rookie season.
- Bookending the post with some more Rockies news, Brendan Rodgers and Tyler Kinley will start rehab assignments with the Rockies’ high-A affiliate on Monday, according to Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post (Twitter link). Neither player has seen any action this season, as Rodgers underwent shoulder surgery during Spring Training and Kinley is recovering from an elbow surgery a little over a year ago.
The Yankees tend to settle for their fallback, second or third options come trading deadline; their caution has cost them players like Luis Castillo, Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander in the past and quite possibly a chance at a championship.
Luis Castillo doesn’t put the Yankees over in 2022. Not even Ohtani would put them over in 2023. The roster is fundamentally flawed and the Yankees don’t have the farm system to fix that in one trade deadline.
Ohtani and a healthy Judge fixes a lot
Castillo is substantially better than what they did get is my central point. Fallback options leave you with flawed players like Donaldson, Rodon and Frankie Montas. For a big market, high payroll team, the Yankees sure settle for “next best” or “second best” an awful lot.
Castillo is substantially better than what they did get is my central point.
===========================
Castillo cost substantially more than Montas did. If I were NYY fan, my complaint would be more about that they basically flipped a semi-reliable #3+ for a guy they couldn’t be sure of.
Castillo would’ve cost Jasson Dominguez + a Ken Waldichuk or Peraza.
Hard to argue that wouldn’t be a better outcome today than Montas but that’s life.
“Luis Castillo doesn’t put the Yankees over in ’23″…I notice you cherry picked my point and conveniently left out Cole & Verlander, when acquiring either at the deadline 2-4 yrs ago would likely have put them over the top. Freudian slip, right?..
maybe i missed something but i dont think cole nor verlander were really available at the trade deadline. The Astros were very much in contention and dont think they were really shopping their aces.
If your going way back verlander was traded at the waiver deadline back in 2017 where the deal could have only been done with one team and they got quite a haul for it. Even if you want to say that deadline you could have gotten him would you have gotten him over sonny gray who was pitching better than verlander younger and i think under longer term of control because you probably couldnt have gotten them both as you traded away a haul for gray and a previous trade to strengthen bullpen with the white sox (robertson and kahnle) and dumped a lot of your top prospects. Hindsight is 20/20 but Gray was i believe the top pitcher available at that deadline and they did go and get him.
Cole and Verlander were both moved in key deadline deals in the last several yrs and the Yankees were in on both, but came up short, is how I remember it. Maybe I should have said 3-6 yrs ago, but the Astros didn’t win 2 World Series by magic, either Verlander or Cole were instrumental in both.
Cole is in his 4th year as a yankee
cole was traded before the season from the pirates to the astros and verlander as a waiver deadline deal from the tigers to the astros which i mentioned above after the yankees had already traded for gray on the last day of that same trade deadline. Gray was pitching better, younger, and under control for longer so was the better choice again hindsight 20/20. But those are the only trades of their careers if i remember correctly.
I remember hearing a few yrs back, that the Yankees didn’t want to part with both Clint Frazier and Miguel Andujar for Cole. My memory isn’t magic, but it’s normally pretty good.
i cant see the astros parting with their ace when they just traded for him that offseason with Cole especially when they were doing very well and gave up a good haul for him..
Maybe Detroit for Verlander but they just pretty much emptied the minor league top 10 for Gray Kahnle and Robertson. Looking at his game logs he wasnt even striking out a batter per inning and he was giving up a decent amount of walks and an era over 4 at the trade deadline.
A trade of Frazier and Andujar at that time would have been the equivalent of trading Cabrera and Peraza last year for a dylan cease this year. Cease did amazing last year this year he has fallen off a tick and seemed to drop backto prior years norms but could rebound to be amazing.similar to what verlander did after that years trade deadline.
Its a lot of risk that would have had to be assumed with that trade with salary as i think at that time Verlander had one of the highest dollar contracts along with being on the wrong side of 30. I also think Verlander had a no trade in his record breaking contract extension as well which he would have to approve and that is usually more dollars or longer extension and probably time they did not have. Hard to imagine anyone predicting 34 yr old going 30+ inning and only giving up 4 runs. during the home stretch of the playoffs.
Cole and Verlander were both moved in key deadline deals
=============================
Cole was actually moved off-season.
My memory actually IS magic. Poof! It disappears.
Yes well put, caution to a fault. Results of them picking up second or third rate players, at first rate prices though
Judge’s absence from the Yankees lineup exposed their flaws. Rizzo is not a confident hitter with Judge on base or around him in the lineup. LeMatheiu was taking small steps backward but now just looks “old” out there. The farm system’s darlings over the last few years, Deivi Garcia and Esteban Florial, have not developed into big league stars and now are available as “extras” in a package deal. I fear the hype machine behind Ozzie Peraza and Ozzie Cabrera is more than just hype.
Their starting pitching has been a huge letdown, as Rodon isn’t the Rodon of 2022 and Severino is all over the place at times. Even German shows flashes of brilliance then flashes of mediocrity.
Ohtani. Stroman, Giolito, or any other higher profile starter would not be enough to fix this team and guarantee they make the playoffs. It has to start with the return of Judge.
The Yankees are still building their teams on a 1980’s baseball model that virtually relies on swinging for the fences at pretty much all times.
Stroman, Giolito, or any other higher profile starter would not be enough
=============================
It might be enough to make the playoffs, but they also shouldn’t trade a whole lot for a 1 in 16 chance of winning the WS.
I was kind of hoping to see either Grichuk or Profar switch dugouts during the Yankees series much like Moustakas did against the Angels. I am sure neither Grichuk nor Profar would be the first choice of Yankees fans, but either would be a LF upgrade for them. And the cost for either wouldn’t be that much. I would imagine Grichuk would cost slightly more though.
Padres got a potential problem… Luis Campusano has been reported of having “communication issues.” When the rubber hits the road, when he finally has to perform, it could be catastrophic for his psyche.
This might have just been a spring training storyline, but I remember there being a lot of talk of how Campusano made a huge effort this offseason to do more with his teammates to fix this criticism. He was getting a lot of praise from guys like Musgrove about how committed he was to working with them and improving.
He’s been at the MLB level for a few years now and just hasn’t really gotten a shot to be the primary catcher. Might as well see what he can do at this point.
Completely agree – this is old news. His bat at AAA is really good. Time to find out if he is the answer for 2024 right now! Nola can remain as backup as an incentive for Aaron to sign in offseason so he can pitch to his brother every 5-6 days! I don’t think anyone should believe Sanchez is part of 2024 if contending for a title. Maybe Campy comes up hot for 2 months and fills that void in the order.
Yep. Time to ease him into primary catcher role, why not? They need to start thinking about the 2024 roster, and hopefully Campy will be a big part of that.
Would be nice to see the Padres develop a catcher
I long for the days of Alomar / Santiago. Which one do we keep and which one do we trade?
Salas is coming soon! If we live long enough…
I’m high on him so far and hope for 2025 call up but I don’t consider that “soon” in the context of the Padres window being 23/24 right now. If they can get the window extended he looks like the future – or maybe he can be a piece that extends the window even. Will need to bring along some of those A ball pitchers with him! A few bright spots there – Snelling, Haynes, Iriarte and a few others the watch develop (in someone’s farm system – LOL)!
Snelling looks very solid. Hey I think they will retool for 25 and beyond, if we trust in what Seidler is publicly committing to. Nando, Joe, Manny, Bogey and Czone will welcome Salas into a lineup with other names we don’t yet know.
Randall Grichuk! Be still my heart
Yankees rank 17th in runs scored and tied for 27th with Detroit for number of hits according to MLB…. Tied with Boston for last place in the AL East. They are fundamentally flawed. with one of the highest payrolls in the sport.
Cashman will deliver more of the same….
Undoubtably
Grichuk is a nice 26th man for a team that is ready to make a full frontal attack at the playoffs. The Yankees, on the other hand, are a flawed team that needs several significant pieces to be in full attack mode. Management should have prepared better over the winter, anyone could easily see over the second half of last season how dependent they were on Judge. Grichak would
Possibly another dumpster dive for Cashman with Grichuk….sure well and up trading half of the pitching in the minors for this guy….LOL
Yes it sounds like a Cashman move. This is why he needs to go, but unfortunately he’s he Steinbrenner’s buddy so he never will
Let me finish.
Not substantially improve their playoff chances.
You’re right, this is exactly the kind of meaningless cheap player that Cashman would be interested in to say he did something. This team has so many problems, this doesn’t even move the needle a millimeter. It doesn’t solve the baserunning gaffes or the infield blunders or the failure to score players in scoring position , not to mention the managerial blunders. The whole organization needs to be rebuilt in order to make this a championship caliber team. Not that Steinbrenner is interested in that, even though he gives us lip service to it. As long as they’re making money he doesn’t care if they’re in last place. To him it’s just a money making operation that is all.
Agreed Dr2022! Do you think they’ll dump Boone as a sacrificial lamb?
No I do not. Cashman and boone are joined at the hip. and Steinbrenner pinches pennies, so-he would never pay for two managers at the same time, so that’s out. unless cashman finally comes forward ,and acknowledges that he is the true manager of the team, and Boonedoogle is just a stooge or puppet. and he just manages the team himself, as he has been doing anyway.
The Yankees would seem to have more than enough 26th men on the roster.
“The exact of who owes Grichuk that money isn’t exactly known”?
Hmm.
Trading for Grichuk puts them over the Cohen tax line. They’ll have to give up a good prospect for the Rockies to eat some salary. They’ll also need to shed a reliever as well to stay under. The Yankees won’t do it bc he doesn’t move the needle.
Now that JD will have a prolonged IL-stint, the money saved through insurance will help pay for his buyout next season.
What makes you think there’s insurance on him. Fans assume every player is covered by insurance. They are not. First the team cant afford to ensure every player, and Insurance companies are not stupid.they do not insure every player because it’s too much of a risk. I’m not saying I know if he is covered or not.but we cant assume there is any insurance on him.
The Yankee Front Office puts out this trash every Trade Deadline just to drum up excitement on Trashman’s mediocre teams. The only thing they got going is fighting it our for last place with Boston.
It’s time for a change in the front office, this out moded process that Cashman continues to follow for decades is not working any longer.
And they need someone who will be not afraid to teach the players fundamentals, because it’s the base running blunders, the defensive mis cues that are killing his team, not to mention the managerial blunders. none of that will change without a major shake up in the front office. Merely replacing the batting coach which is a scapegoating move by Cashman, it’s not going to improve much, if anything.
Luis Gonzalez? Lol he’s a bench player I’m sure they have plenty of people in the minor’s who can post a.680 ops.
Sadly, Grichuk is better than anyone the Yankees are playing in the outfield now.
You are right, that is very sad