KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Yankees beat the Royals 4-2 on Friday night, with Ryan McMahon breaking open the game with an opposite-field home run in the eighth inning. Trent Grisham went 0-for-4 and also committed an error in center field in the sixth inning that handed Kansas City a run.
That kind of night would usually invite a change at the top of the order, but the Yankees have not considered moving Grisham out of the leadoff spot despite weeks of disappointing results. They do not have a clear alternative who is hitting better, even though Grisham is batting.145/.303/.290 on the year.
The numbers around him are harder to dismiss than the average itself. Grisham’s Statcast profile still places him in the 94th percentile or better in hard-hit rate, chase rate and walk rate, a sign that parts of his offensive game are holding up even as the production lags. The bigger concern has been the drop in bat speed, which has regressed noticeably this season.
For the Yankees, that leaves a familiar kind of calculation. They are 100% committed to Grisham, and Friday showed why that commitment is being tested but not broken. His defense in center is usually a strength, which made the sixth-inning error stand out even more, and his bat has yet to match the trust the club keeps placing in him.
The Yankees can keep writing his name at the top because the alternatives are limited and the season is still young enough for the underlying metrics to matter. But if the leadoff spot is supposed to set the tone for a World Series contender, Grisham is giving them too many nights like this one to ignore forever.