{"id":170912,"date":"2026-03-21T20:19:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T20:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/170912\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T20:19:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T20:19:12","slug":"randal-grichuk-earns-bench-spot-with-yankees-roster-nearly-set","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/170912\/","title":{"rendered":"Randal Grichuk earns bench spot with Yankees roster nearly set"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>LAKELAND, Fla. \u2013 The Yankees\u2019 26-man roster is nearly set.<\/p>\n<p>The likely final bench spot was finalized Saturday, when the Yankees informed Randal Grichuk that he was making the team after the veteran outfielder was in camp <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/03\/09\/sports\/randal-grichuk-playing-catch-up-while-trying-to-cement-key-yankees-role\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">on a minor league deal<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>They also optioned Oswaldo Cabrera to Triple-A, giving the utilityman more time to build up and find his rhythm after a long road back from suffering a broken ankle last May.<\/p>\n<p>Grichuk, a right-handed hitter who will play against lefties, triggered his opt-out as an Article XX(B) free agent Thursday, which led the Yankees to make a decision on him by Saturday morning.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe looks [like] what we hoped,\u201d manager Aaron Boone said at Joker Marchant Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFeel like he\u2019s in a good spot and he can help us. He\u2019ll be a factor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49053857;display:block\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38853058\" width=\"879\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/new-york-yankees-outfielder-randal-123687653.jpg\" alt=\"New York Yankees outfielder Randal Grichuk (34) singles during the first inning against the Detroit Tigers.\" class=\"wp-image-38853058\"  \/> Yankees outfielder Randal Grichuk (34) singles during the first inning against the Detroit Tigers at George M. Steinbrenner Field.  Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>The Yankees invited Grichuk to big league camp in late February, after it had already began, so Saturday was only his seventh game of the spring. <\/p>\n<p>But the 34-year-old showed them enough, combined with his track record, that made them comfortable carrying him as their fourth outfielder to begin the season <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/03\/20\/sports\/yankees-jasson-dominguez-gets-sent-to-triple-a\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">after sending Jasson Dom\u00ednguez to Triple-A <\/a>on Friday night.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.35629139;display:block\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38853204\" width=\"800\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/new-york-yankees-third-baseman-121509609_9931dd.jpg\" alt=\"Oswaldo Cabrera batting during New York Yankees Spring Training.\" class=\"wp-image-38853204\"  \/>Oswaldo Cabrera during spring training. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n<p>\u201cObviously I think it was a good opportunity, that\u2019s why I came here and was excited to be here,\u201d Grichuk said. \u201cWith the late start and some things out of your control, I tried to make the most of it. Glad I did enough to crack it .\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Grichuk was only batting 2-for-16 with a .313 OPS entering Saturday, but indicated he felt close to finding his timing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt doesn\u2019t feel far at all,\u201d he said. \u201cLeading up to this, I was playing that game of, in between [games], doing things I wanted to do to prepare for the season and get my timing, see pitches, but also try to produce to make the team. But now, go out there for the last few games and do some things that I need to do to prepare myself physically to get in the moves that I need to make for the different pitches in a game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAKELAND, Fla. \u2013 The Yankees\u2019 26-man roster is nearly set. The likely final bench spot was finalized Saturday,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[20,9,11,10,321,40210,61584,319,55941],"class_list":["post-170912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-mlb","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-oswaldo-cabrera","tag-randal-grichuk","tag-sports","tag-spring-training"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}