The Yankees left Friday night with more than a 3-2, 10-inning loss to the Padres. They also may be staring at a center-field problem at exactly the wrong moment.
Trent Grisham came out of the game with a right hamstring injury, and Aaron Boone said the issue was aggravated while Grisham was trying to steal second base. He stayed in briefly after that, but the trouble showed up again in the second inning when he limped while chasing a fly ball from Xander Bogaerts. The ball turned into an RBI single, and Grisham was pulled before the bottom of the third.
An MRI is expected to show whether New York will need to place him on the injured list.
The Yankees had to shuffle things right away. Heliot Ramos entered the lineup, and Spencer Jones shifted into center field. That change didn’t just alter the defense - it immediately unsettled New York’s alignment in a game that slipped away.
There’s also a reason the club has to be careful here. Grisham already missed time in June with a strained right hamstring, and this is the same leg. That makes the next steps even more delicate.
On paper, Grisham is hitting .211 with 18 home runs and 59 RBIs in 121 games. But the numbers don’t capture what he gives them in center: power, veteran presence and real range at a premium spot. That’s not something the Yankees can patch over with one simple move.
Jones has the athleticism to cover center, but moving him creates another ripple through the outfield. Ramos can add offense, though New York still has to figure out whether that setup is sturdy enough for September.
The bigger issue is that the Yankees can’t afford to rush Grisham back. Hamstrings have a way of hanging around, especially for an outfielder who has to explode on contact and cover a lot of ground. If they push it too soon, they could lose him for even longer when the postseason arrives.
For now, they’re waiting on the imaging. And the timing could hardly be worse: a tight loss, a key defender leaving early, and a playoff race that may now force the Yankees to rework their outfield on the fly.
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