Trent Grisham’s night ended in the second inning when his left knee gave out near second base. During Wednesday’s game against the Toronto Blue Jays, the Yankees’ center fielder hit a simple double. He slid into second base, looked hurt right away, and grabbed his knee. After the inning, Aaron Boone checked on Grisham and thought that he could get through the game. But in the fifth inning, Grisham was replaced with rookie Spencer Jones.

After the game, manager Aaron Boone said, “Yeah, we’ll see… I don’t want to speculate too much… the why he was hopping on second, I was concerned it was a calf or something like that. It wasn’t… felt like we needed to get him out of there at that point.”

After the game, Boone did admit that the player coming out of the game “definitely raises your eyebrows.” The Yankees manager didn’t want to dig more into it before they scheduled the imaging later on the same day. When asked about it by the player, Trent Grisham explained his knee simply “felt weird” and never got better as the game moved forward. As of now, the Yankees still do not know whether this is a short absence or if they will have to place him on the IL.

If Grisham is going to get on the IL, the Yankees have a major problem in their outfield. Stanton is already sidelined with a calf strain, stretching them thin. Jasson Dominguez is also on the sidelines with a shoulder sprain. Grisham also has a history of leg injuries. A bad hamstring hurt his defense late in the 2025 season.

Meaning Spencer Jones will likely get more playing time. But the problem is that even Jones hasn’t been doing well with an average of .143, but this could give him a good number of at-bats to improve his numbers. And if Grisham does miss a significant amount of time, Cody Bellinger could take up the duties at center field. But if we look at the bright side, this might be a good break for Grisham.

Grisham entered Wednesday batting just .174 with six homers and 27 RBIs through 49 games this season. It clearly shows that the $22 million gamble that the Yankees and Brian Cashman took has not worked out. After blasting 34 home runs in a career-best 2025 season, Cashman bet big that Grisham had figured out major league pitching. The Yankees extended a $22 million qualifying offer. Grisham took the money.

But for the Yankees, it is a miss because even as the surface numbers look bad, his advanced numbers show the impact. Grisham has been hitting with a very high hard-hit percentage at 48.8%. This shows that Grisham is able to make good contact with the ball, but the hits haven’t been as effective as the team would want them to be.

That explains why Boone repeatedly defended Grisham despite disappointing offensive numbers all season. With another injury, the Yankees are left with fewer lineup combinations during this important stretch of games.

But the Yankees have another major concern they have to deal with.

The Yankees might not be able to win as much in October with how the season is going

Losing Grisham hurts the Yankees where they are weakest: tight games. Wednesday night proved this perfectly. The Yankees and Blue Jays waited through a two-hour rain delay before playing a close, low-scoring match. New York lost 2-1. This defeat kept a bad trend alive.

Even with the injuries, the New York Yankees are doing well with a 30-20 record. The Yankees opened May leading the division and carried MLB’s strongest run differential (+68). However, the Tampa Bay Rays have put on a show and have a 32-15 record after winning 13-of-16 games in May and overtaking the Yankees in the division race.

Tampa Bay swept April’s Tropicana series, including consecutive 5-4 victories, exposing New York’s struggles. What is the struggle, you ask? Winning close games.

Tyler Kepner noted that the Yankees entered May with a 3-10 record during one-run games. They leave players on base and fail to score late in games. The Rays, on the other hand, easily win those exact situations. The Yankees lost 7-6 against the Mets after getting hit for a 9th-inning homer by Tyrone Taylor. During April’s 5-3 loss to the Rays, New York stranded runners while managing only five hits.

But when we look at numbers, they continue supporting New York as one of MLB’s strongest offensive teams. The Yankees have scored 250 runs (4th in the league) while allowing just 181 (5th lowest in the league).

While the Rays have a +22-run differential, the Yankees’ offense has been so good that the Yankees have a +70-run differential. But the problem is in close games. And when we look at the season as a whole, that might be the point of difference for the Yankees.

We know that the Yankees are going to make the postseason, just like every other season. But the deeper they go into the postseason, the tighter the games will get. And there will be games that go to extra innings, and with the Yankees having a 0-3 record in extra-inning games, they can’t overlook this.