A long career — he is in his 13th season and on his seventh team — has allowed Randal Grichuk perspective about the capriciousness of hitting. Sometimes smashed pitches find gloves. Bleeders become infield singles. It happens.
He tries to chase the process — a disciplined approach and the hard contact that tells him his swing is in a good spot — rather than the results. He jokes with hitting coaches that he would rather go 0-for-4 with four demolished outs than 4-for-4 with four bloop singles.
But the time for taking heart in conducting quality at-bats is over. With Anthony Volpe on his way back and one Yankee thus on the way out, Grichuk understands he needs to perform, and the traditional stats, as well as the advanced batted-ball data, need to reflect that he is performing.
“That’s the frustrating part of being in the situation I am,” Grichuk said Monday.
The situation: Grichuk was signed late in camp as a righty hitter capable of crushing lefties, but the Yankees seldom saw a starting left-hander in the early going, just San Francisco’s Robbie Ray in the first 11 games. So he barely played for a few weeks and now has begun getting some run, during which his expected numbers are better than his actual numbers.
Volpe, who played last week with Double-A Somerset and will play this week with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, could be ready by this weekend, creating a roster dilemma.
Would the Yankees option J.C. Escarra, who has not hit well? Not unless they feel comfortable enough with Ben Rice at backup catcher, and Rice has not caught an inning this season, though he has remained active in bullpen sessions and live batting practices.
Would the Yankees option José Caballero? Probably not, as Caballero is a solid backup option at shortstop and a real threat as a late-game pinch runner.
Would the Yankees cut bait with Paul Goldschmidt, given his shrunken role as Rice begins to see more time at first base against lefties? This early at least, highly doubtful.
That leaves Grichuk, who acknowledged the reality.
“With Volpe coming back — it’s something you think about,” he said before the Yankees swept the Royals. “You’re not not thinking about it. You just got to hope that, if it doesn’t all work out here — and hopefully it does — somebody else is interested due to the fact that they see the underlying stuff, not the baseball-card numbers.”
The baseball-card numbers paint the picture of a hitter who has begun terribly. In limited playing time, Grichuk has gone 2-for-20 with a pair of doubles, one walk and eight strikeouts. A hitter signed to hit lefties was not in the lineup Sunday against Kansas City’s Cole Ragans.
But within that teensy sample size is some reason to believe there is more in Grichuk’s bat. Among 406 hitters who entered Monday with at least 10 plate appearances, his 61.5 percent hard-hit rate ranked 12th. His 30.8 percent barrel rate ranked third, just ahead of fourth-place Aaron Judge (27.5). When Grichuk has made contact, he has pounded baseballs that have become outs.
He needs to make more contact — his 36.4 percent strikeout rate in the early going is unflattering — and probably needs to have a big week against the likes of Boston southpaws Connelly Early and Ranger Suarez to give himself a chance.
“I feel like I’m swinging it well — could be swinging it better,” Grichuk said. “I felt like there’s been some at-bats that could have been rewarded but haven’t been. So it’s frustrating, but it’s definitely been one of those things that at the end of the day, no one cares. You need to produce.
“Go into it with some confidence knowing that I’ve found some barrels and haven’t found some holes and know that that’s all I can control. Just got to keep going.”
Grichuk does not want to leave and praised virtually everything and everyone around the Yankees. He cited a coaching staff he appreciates and that lets players prepare as they believe is best; an analytics staff that has “everything you could ever think of at your disposal”; a clubhouse he loves led by a leader he loves in Aaron Judge.
“Honestly, everything has been amazing,” he said. “Besides the traffic, everything’s great.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
