The Yankees have signed veteran right-handed hitting corner outfielder Randal Grichuk to a minor league deal, according to YES Network’s Jack Curry, who was the first to report the news late Wednesday evening.
Grichuk ( age 34) posted an underwhelming .228 batting average with 9 home runs, 27 RBI’s, and a .674 OPS in 113 games last season between the Dbacks and Royals.
Grichuk, however, posted strong offensive numbers the previous season in 2024, in which his strong suit, facing left-handed pitching, had him carrying a .” 941 OPS versus southpaws from 2021-24, which ranked 9th in all of baseball within such timeframe”, stated Joel Sherman of the New York Post.
Sherman goes onto mention that Grichuk OPS versus left handed pitching went down in 2025, in which he reports it as being .703 in 2025 versus left handers.
Grichuk Had Success Against Yankees In His Career
Grichuk can also be characterized as a “Yankee Killer” in the sense that he’s typically played well when facing the Yankees throughout his career. Grichuk has a career .253 batting average with 18 home runs and 35 RBI’s lifetime against the Yankees in 68 games versus them, according to StatMuse.
It’s no secret the Yankees were looking for another right-handed bat this offseason, preferably a corner outfielder. Grichuk checks all those boxes and could serve as the Yankees’ fourth outfielder heading into 2026, while Jasson Domínguez gets everyday reps in Triple A to begin the season, which seems to be the consensus belief and was tweeted as a possibility by Jon Heyman of the New York Post.
The Yankees had been linked to Grichuk throughout the offseason, which was first reported by Joel Sherman of the New York Post in the weeks leading up to Yankees pitchers and catchers reporting to Spring Training in Tampa.
While Grichuk has also regressed defensively, he’s still a near league-average defender in the outfield, according to Baseball Savant.
Grichuk Yankees Signing Makes Sense
You add his comfort hitting in Yankee Stadium in recent years, as well as his success against left-handed pitching, and it makes sense why the Yankees decided to bring in Grichuk as a depth piece.
Whether he makes the team come Opening Day remains to be seen, but clearly the Yankees would not have signed him if they didn’t think there was a chance he could crack the big league roster. The Yankees were linked to former outfielder Austin Slater, who they traded for at the deadline last season from the White Sox, but he ultimately agreed to terms with the Tigers.
Grichuk checks a lot of boxes in terms of what the Yankees were looking for to complete their offseason. Now that he’s signed, it’s likely that this will be the Yankees team heading into the 2026 season, looking to get back to the World Series and change the trajectory that’s plagued them over the last 16 years with this championship drought.
There’s no guarantee that Grichuk makes the team as a non-roster invitee since it’s a minor league deal with a spring training invite. Still, it will certainly make for an intriguing conversation over the next several weeks of Yankees spring training as the final roster spots begin to take shape. We have a better idea of what the 2026 Yankees will look like come Opening Day in San Francisco by late March or the end of the month.
Yankees Sign Veteran Outfielder Randal Grichuk