Aaron Boone keeps talking like Trent Grisham is still the steady center fielder the Yankees can count on. The numbers, and a few too many tense innings, say otherwise.
Grisham’s bat has drawn plenty of attention this season, though that noise has quieted a bit after his surge this week. The bigger concern for New York has been what’s happening in center field, where his defense has slipped enough to become a real problem. Boone, though, has continued to back him publicly and says the Yankees still trust him out there.
On the Talkin' Yanks podcast, Boone described Grisham’s defense this way: "Mostly good, mostly really reliable. Not at the Gold Glove level from a few years ago," Boone said on the Talkin' Yanks podcast regarding Grisham's defense.
He also pointed to Grisham’s hamstring injury, saying, "So you get dinged with some gappers that fall that really move the needle. So, I think that's hurt him a little bit.
And then there's been a couple of those gappers that he hasn't hit, but I trust him exclusively out there. He is really good at it.
He's made some great plays out there."
That sounds a lot like an argument against itself. Boone is essentially acknowledging that Grisham isn’t playing at the Gold Glove level he once reached, while still insisting he remains a quality center fielder. The problem is that the metrics don’t back that up.
Among qualified center fielders, Grisham sits last in outs above average at -4. Defensive runs saved tells a similar story, with the 29-year-old near the bottom at -5. That’s not the profile of a dependable defensive anchor in center, especially when the players setting the pace at the position are Pete Crow-Armstrong at 22 and Ceddanne Rafaela at 14 in outs above average.
The Yankees can’t really afford that kind of leakage right now. Without Aaron Judge, scoring runs has been hard enough already. Giving them away in the field only makes the margin thinner, and New York’s injuries make run prevention even more important.
One play from Aug. 5 against the St. Louis Cardinals stood out.
In the fifth inning, JJ Wetherholt doubled past Grisham and broke a scoreless tie. Had Grisham made the play, the Yankees would have escaped the inning cleanly.
Instead, two runs crossed, and New York went on to lose 3-1. The ball carried a 75% catch probability.
Grisham described the play this way: "Off the bat, I thought I had a pretty good chance at it. As I was going back, it kind of just kept going"
His athleticism has also shown signs of decline. This season, his average sprint speed is 26.6 feet per second, which ranks in the 30th percentile. Last season it was 26.7 feet per second, and the defensive issues were there then, too.
That leaves the Yankees with a clear alternative in Spencer Jones. A natural center fielder, Jones has mostly been parked in right field, aside from the stretch when Grisham was on the IL. Jones brings a different kind of range: he stands six-foot-seven and owns an average sprint speed of 29.2 feet per second, a 93rd percentile mark.
With Cody Bellinger on the way, the Yankees may not have many chances left to reshuffle the outfield. Benching Grisham entirely doesn’t sound realistic at this point, but swapping him and Jones in the alignment does. Right field is the smaller space, and it makes sense to put Grisham there while letting Jones cover more ground in center.
Boone, though, seems unlikely to make that move. His loyalty to “his guys” has a way of shaping how he sees things, and in this case the Yankees are the ones left exposed. Their offense is already under strain, and if the defense keeps slipping in center field, New York will keep paying for it.
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