The Yankees got exactly what they wanted in Game 1: a 9-0 rout of the rival Boston Red Sox in the Bronx and a 1-0 lead in the three-game series. Game 2 should ask for something different, and it ought to bring Trent Grisham into the lineup.
With Boston starting right-hander Sonny Gray, Aaron Boone has a different puzzle than he did against lefty Payton Tolle and a parade of left-handed relievers. The Game 1 plan leaned hard into platoons. Game 2 should tilt the other way, and the case for Grisham is pretty straightforward.
Heliot Ramos is a platoon bat at heart, and that matters here. Grisham’s 2026 splits are even overall, but since joining the Yankees in 2024, he has handled righties better than Ramos has.
He also brings more of a professional at-bat in a high-leverage spot, with better contact and plate discipline. Ramos, by contrast, is the damage-first option.
The Gray matchup only sharpens the argument. Grisham has seen him well over his career, while Ramos has not.
vs. Sonny Gray (career):Trent Grisham: 5-for-10, HR, RBI, 2B, BB, 2 KHeliot Ramos: 1-for-10, 5 K
That matters even more when you think about how the bench could be used later in the game. If Grisham starts, Ramos can still be saved for a pinch-hit chance when Boston turns to its left-handed leverage arms in an attempt to keep the season alive. A left-handed bat sitting around once Gray is out of the game doesn’t offer much value if the Yankees aren’t going to see many right-handers after that.
Grisham also showed enough in his first at-bat in 25 days on Tuesday night against Brayan Bello to justify the look. He worked the count to 3-1 and then drove a sinker into left-center field, where Ceddanne Rafaela made the play.
The obvious pushback is defense. Grisham is limited to center field, and he has played it poorly.
This season, he was the worst defensive center fielder in baseball, posting -8 Defensive Runs Saved, -6 Outs Above Average, and -5 Fielding Run Value. That kind of profile is hard to live with unless the bat is carrying its weight, and this year it wasn’t.
Still, the Yankees have to sort through the options they actually have right now. With Aaron Judge not fully healthy, the choice is not as simple as handing the job to a more ideal version of the roster. Spencer Jones is in the mix, and so is Ramos, but the defensive numbers are not pretty there either.
In center field, Jones has been worth -4 DRS, -4 OAA, and -3 FRV in 315 innings. Stretch that across Grisham’s 961 innings, and the numbers project to -12, -12, and -9. That’s a rough outcome.
Ramos has not been clean in right field, either. He’s at -5 OAA and -5 FRV there this season, with almost all of that coming since the trade deadline.
So while it may not look ideal on paper, the best starting-caliber outfield alignment for the Yankees tonight might be Cody Bellinger, Grisham, and Jones. Bellinger is the constant as the Gold Glove frontrunner, and among the other choices, Grisham gives New York the clearest fit for Game 2.
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