Yankees' Trent Grisham goes on IL with right hamstring strain as Aaron Judge nears return

Outfielder Trent Grisham has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a right hamstring strain, the New York Yankees announced on Saturday.

Grisham, 29, left Friday’s 3-2 loss to the San Diego Padres in the second inning. After drawing a walk against Padres pitcher Walker Buehler, Grisham attempted to steal second base and was thrown out.

In the bottom of the second, Grisham played center field in the bottom of the inning. But he was clearly laboring while trying to run in on a bloop single by Xander Bogaerts and Spencer Jones shifted over to center field from right field in the third.

Grisham has 18 home runs, 19 doubles and 59 RBI this season, but is slashing .211/.308/.395 in 484 plate appearances. In mid-June, he also went on the IL with a right hamstring issue and was sidelined for approximately three weeks. However, Grisham told reporters that this strain was in a different spot, according to The Athletic’s Chris Kirschner.

Jones will likely stay in center field for the Yankees’ remaining 21 regular-season games. He’s played 24 of his 61 games at that position with 16 starts. In 152 innings, advanced metrics rate him as slightly below average with -1 Defensive Runs Saved and -1 Outs Above Average. During his four-plus seasons in the minor leagues, Jones played 325 games in center.

Heliot Ramos played right field in Friday’s game after Jones moved to center and he’s starting there on Saturday. Ramos was picked up at the MLB trade deadline from the San Francisco Giants.

Jasson Domínguez was recalled from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to take Grisham’s spot on the Yankees roster and he could play some right field, as well. He’s played 41 games there during his time with the Yankees this season. In 53 major-league games, his slash line is .230/.270/.380, while he’s slashing .283/.361/.420 in the minors.

However, Domínguez might not be on the Yankees’ roster for long if Aaron Judge is activated from the injured list. The three-time American League MVP took on-field batting practice on Friday for the first time since suffering a stress fracture in his right rib cage.

Judge also ran the bases and worked in the outfield, indicating that he could return soon. Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Judge could be activated during the team’s upcoming homestand from Sept. 8-13.

The Yankees slugger said he does not want to go on a minor-league rehab assignment and Boone said he will face live pitching on Monday. In lieu of a rehab assignment, Judge may initially play partial games when he returns.