Trent Grisham is GONE! How will the Yankees fill out the OF? | Pinstripe Post

It's a drive by Ezem Gostin. This is part six of our series, going position by position on the Yankees. We've covered the entire infield now. Catch a first base, second base, shortstop, third base. There's videos, the New York Post Sports YouTube page. Please visit us at nypost.com. Go to the sports section, Post Plus. Please become a member. You get stuff like this, hopefully, and you enjoy it. We're up to the outfield, and I think the outfield is really a question about Spencer Jones. But before we get there, because I think this is intertwined with Jones, you've got to think about two important issues. Cody Bellinger can make himself a free agent. He has a player opt-out after both 2027 and 2028. So you have to think about, is he going to be with the team long-term? And you also have to consider that Aaron Judge turns 35 in April, and he's coming off a season where he had two injuries, calf and rib, where there wasn't some traumatic run into the wall, gigantic swing moment where he got hurt. And I do think you probably have to begin to worry with Judge at this age and at his size. Is there some trajectory like Giancarlo Stanton where he's hurt a lot and could benefit from being a DH more regularly? Well, I just described a situation where in the near future the Yankees could need a left fielder and a more regular right fielder. So Spencer Jones perhaps fits into that in the long-term plan. and you want to kind of keep him around, especially if you think he's really good. And I sense the Yankees think he's really good. But the issue for 2027 is really a center field issue. The Yankees almost certainly aren't bringing Trent Grisham back. He's a free agent and he's likely to get out into the marketplace. So I think this is really a question of do they just live with the outfield that they can play right now, if you think about it. They've got Bellinger, Jones, and Judge. That would be their main starting three. They have Elliott Ramos to hit against lefties. They could ask Jose Caballero, and they should ask Jose Caballero to be part of this outfield group and try to play as some center field in the winter, work at it, et cetera, to give them some depth. And they still have Jason Dominguez in the minor league. I know everybody's down on him right now, but he has one option left. We'll get into it in a bit if he should be a trade candidate or not. But at least for now, you could, in theory, have him sitting in the minor leagues. And so the question becomes, what do you think of Spencer Jones? It was certainly an interesting appetizer. After he came up in late July for the third and last time, he became a really good player, especially hitter. uh the numbers against left-handers it was not a dramatic number of at-bats but it was not zero and he handled himself very well against lefties why didn't he handle himself as well against righties um there were homers 11 of them there were 10 steals he was a double double player in just a couple of months of play i think you can see a lot more of that uh the projection i keep putting on him is what if he were Adam Dunn for those of you who remember it but with the ability to steal bases uh athleticism and the capability to go out in the field and play well uh if you remember Dunn was a high strikeout high walk a high homer guy and I think that that's potential for Spencer Jones as well but there's also the downside on Spencer Jones and the Yankees have to factor that in as they're thinking about this team moving forward which is what if he's just Joey Gallo in the sense that the swing and miss is so great that he becomes unplayable now I will say for Jones he did something early on that Gallo never did which was he was comfortable here uh he played well for a rookie uh he didn't seem overwhelmed by all this but the other issue is he just didn't play well on defense uh and that wasn't just center field there was an uncertainty and tentativeness to the stuff he did was that first year jitters or is there more going on and he's going to be uh average or less than average outfielder you don't want that in center field for sure um so the question is do the yankees do something to create some counter for it uh i think that they would be best off even if Jones were a capable center fielder finding a right hand hitting caddy who is a good center fielder. I'm always afraid to throw out names because it seems I'm saying there's something afoot. I'm just throwing out names of people I would keep an eye on as opposed to that I've heard that they're available or anything. But for example, Matt Vierling with the Tigers is entering his walk year. Are the Tigers tendering him a contract? If they do, is he an available player? He's no star, but he can hit lefty pitching. He can play center field And he has the value. He can play just about any place on the diamond. You know, Henry Bolt with the A's last year. I really like Jake Mangum, who was once a Met farmhand. He's with the Pirates now. The Yankees have had interest in Brenton Doyle previously. He got traded to the White Sox. He had a very bad year. Do the Yankees still think that he can hit lefty pitching and play the heck out of center field when called upon? uh you know would the White Sox trade him uh those are questions to ask uh you know do you want to get involved with Luis Robert Jr who's a free agent uh the Yankees considered him last offseason uh uh you know and that that might have been the way they turned if uh they didn't uh resign Bellinger and they hadn't uh Grisham hadn't accepted the uh qualifying offer he's incredibly talented but incredibly frustrating player uh he he just doesn't stay healthy and he has some inability to kind of play consistently well over a period of time but he's certainly an interesting guy you would have to consider out in the marketplace uh so you know that that that that's a way to think of it i'll throw out one other name because i know the Yankees have always liked the player and it's Washington's Jacob Young uh the Yankees have talked about him before But Washington should rightfully put a high price on him. He's a very good defender. Last year, for the first time, he really hit lefty pitching well. He's got a lot of team control. But we do know the Nationals and the Yankees have the ability to make a trade. They did one last August at the trade deadline for Luis Garcia Jr. So it's just a name that I know they've liked in the past. What else do we have to think about here? You know, it's pretty simple. Aaron Judge has played 148 games five times in his career. He's finished fourth, second and first three times for the AL MVP in those seasons. When he plays, he's a great player. And now the Yankees just have to think about is there ways to preserve him better? Was last year a bit aberrational in two kind of quirky injuries? or is this now part of the portfolio moving forward and the Yankees have to think about what it means to play judge less, play him less in right field. It's part of the outfield picture and part of the decision-making. And as long as Stanton is around, it's hard to put somebody into the DH slot. You've got Stanton, you've got Rice, you've got Luis Garcia Jr. Some of this will clarify. Stanton doesn't often make it through a full season healthy. Garcia is a free agent after 2027 but the Yankees have the grandest plans for 2027 they're not just going to throw it away so you got to put the best team possible on the field uh and why don't we end on Dominguez look I think that he has showed us with uh how how bad his defensive instincts are and how often the attention to finer details could get away from him that this probably isn't going to work in New York on the other hand he isn't even 24 yet uh he's a switch hitter he showed he could hit right-handed better uh I still think there's potentially a regular 20 homer 20 steal in the same season guy there and if I were a smaller market team in need of a bat uh and I had 500 plate appearances to just see it and see if it actually flourishes uh I would go ahead and take a shot at it and if i were the yankees if i could answer uh by using either dominguez or dominguez as part of a package you know late inning relief a third baseman or that center field type uh right hand hitting center field type uh i would definitely think it's time uh for jason dominguez uh that that experiment to come to a conclusion uh it didn't go in the Martian way perfect