TORONTO – Nearly half of the Yankees’ Opening Day lineup is now on the injured list.
Trent Grisham joined the growing list of walking wounded Saturday, being placed on the 10-day IL with a right hamstring strain that he suffered Friday night in an 8-5 loss at Rogers Centre.
To replace him, the Yankees activated Jasson Domínguez off the injured list a few days earlier than they had planned, with the potential for him to start in right field Saturday against the Blue Jays.
Spencer Jones will likely take over the bulk of center field duties while Grisham is out, with Domínguez possibly sliding into right field after playing three games there on his rehab assignment, including Friday night.
Grisham joined Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Austin Wells as members of the regular starting lineup to be on the injured list, along with left-hander Max Fried, as the Yankees try to survive the onslaught of injuries.
The timing is brutal for Grisham, who had been red-hot, batting .370 with a .987 OPS over his last 19 games.
“It’s part of it, everyone kind of deals with it,” manager Aaron Boone said Friday night of the injuries piling up. “Fortunately, as we’ve talked about all year, I feel like it’s one of the deeper rosters we’ve had in a while. So we got capable people of going in there and picking up any slack left. You never like key guys going down of course, but in a long season, that’s unfortunately part of it sometimes.
“Another opportunity for potentially a couple really good players that are stepping in. We’re not hoping on guys that can’t play. We’ll weather it and look forward to getting more and more guys back in the mix.”
