New York Yankees center fielder Trent Grisham said Sunday he feels ready for the American League Wild Card Series, though the club has not told him whether he will make the roster.
Yankees beat writer Greg Joyce reported that Grisham and left-hander Ryan Weathers still are waiting on word from the team.
“Trent Grisham said he feels ready to be on the Wild Card roster, but that he and Yankees left-hander Ryan Weathers have not been told by the team yet whether they will be on the roster,” Joyce wrote.
Grisham has been out since Sept. 4, when he left a game against the San Diego Padres with what the Yankees called “right hamstring discomfort.” The club later listed the injury as a right hamstring strain and placed him on the injured list the next day.
It was his second hamstring issue of the season. He also missed time after a July 12 injury, returned, and then went down again in early September.
The Yankees are expected to host Boston in a best-of-three Wild Card series beginning Tuesday at Yankee Stadium. Roster decisions are due before the first pitch.
Grisham, 29, is hitting .211 with an on-base percentage of .308 and an OPS of .703. He has 18 home runs and 59 RBIs in 121 games.
Those numbers are a drop from 2025, when he accepted a one-year, $22.025 million qualifying offer and posted a career-high 34 home runs with an .812 OPS in 143 games.
Power has not vanished. Contact and on-base skills have. After the All-Star break he has slashed .170/.261/.352 in 45 games, according to CBS Sports reporting tied to his latest injury timeline.
Defense has slipped as well. Baseball Savant credits him with minus-6 outs above average, a mark in the bottom 9th percentile among big-league outfielders. His arm remains above average, but the hamstring problems have left him a step slower in center field.
Rookie Spencer Jones has been the main stand-in. The 6-foot-7 outfielder is hitting .245 with an OBP of .313, an OPS of .742, 11 home runs and 40 RBIs in 86 games. He also has 10 stolen bases.
Jones still strikes out often and is learning the position. Baseball Savant has him at minus-4 outs above average, around the 15th percentile, but his sprint speed of 28.9 feet per second ranks in the 88th percentile.
Manager Aaron Boone said last week that activating Grisham before the regular season ended would be “a little complicated” because of option and recall rules that can lock a player out of the Wild Card roster.
Boone also said Grisham was “pretty deep into his running progression” and doing baseball work. Grisham later took live batting practice and on-field BP alongside Giancarlo Stanton as both tried to force their way into October plans.
New York still has to decide whether a player who has not appeared in a game since Sept. 4 belongs on a three-game roster. Jones has the recent at-bats. Grisham has the playoff experience and left-handed power.
If the Yankees leave him off for the Wild Card round, he could still enter the picture in a later series if New York advances. For now, the only firm update is that he says he is ready and the club has not said yes or no.
