Randal Grichuk's surge with White Sox couldn't come at worse time for Yankees

Remember when we applauded the New York Yankees' ruthless sense of urgency when they DFA'd Randal Grichuk in a flurry of roster moves at the end of April? The end result was Jasson Dominguez getting the call-up from Scranton. And it was earned! His red-hot hitting after making a necessary adjustment against left-handed pitching couldn't be ignored.

Well, it's only been a couple of weeks, but that move looks like a mistake. Dominguez's scary collision with the outfield wall has him laid up for a while, and gave way for Spencer Jones to take his place. It's been a small sample, but Jones has really struggled going 1-for-12 with six Ks along the way.

So what's Grichuk been up to in his new digs on the Southside of Chicago? Well ...

Through eight games with the White Sox, Grichuk has logged 17 plate appearances with a .313/.353/.875 line and three dingers. It's a far cry from the .194/.212/.323 mark he put up in pinstripes.

Despite his hot start in Chicago, the Yankees didn't make a mistake by letting Randal Grichuk go

First, there were signs that Grichuk was about to turn things around after his atrocious start in the Bronx. The 34-year-old hit .333/.316/.556 over his final seven games as a Yankee. But just as his struggles were over a small sample size, so too have been his recent successes.

The fact of the matter was that Dominguez figured to offer essentially the same benefit if he could continue hitting lefties as well as he did in Scranton, plus much more. Neither player is a good defensive outfielder, but the Martian brought speed and the ability to hit righties to the table, things that Grichuk doesn't provide.

No one could predict a fluke injury like what happened to Dominguez, so while it's easy to look at hindsight and say that the Yankees should have simply kept Grichuk since he was heating up, it's actually an unreasonable position to take.

Now, in Dominguez's absence, the Yankees have Jones in his place. As a left-handed bat, they no longer have the platoon balance they need, but they are gaining something more valuable in the process.

New York needs to figure out what it has in Jones (and Dominguez), and then proceed accordingly. In a perfect world, one establishes himself as a long-term piece alongside Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger, while the other can serve as trade bait to fill a deficiency elsewhere on the roster. The club was never going to get that clarity with Grichuk on the roster.

The current results are less than ideal, but that doesn't mean the Yankees' process was wrong. Ultimately, Grichuk has a relatively low ceiling. At best, he's a slightly above-average weak-side platoon bat. At worst, he produces something like the 89 wRC+ he registered against southpaws a year ago. We might soon find that he comes crashing down to earth and makes this discussion moot. Until then, we can recognize that the Yankees made the right decision at the time, even if things haven't gone their way since.

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