Concerns Overblown: Yankees' Trent Grisham Is Fine After All

The Yankees are finally getting the version of Trent Grisham they hoped to get when he took their qualifying offer.

Trent Grisham has done a terrific job at erasing any concerns that Yankees fans had about his performance. | Peter Aiken-Imagn Images

Trent Grisham has had a target on his back since the Yankees handed him a qualifying offer, which he immediately accepted. The thought behind the move was that nobody believed Grisham would actually take it, and that once he did, it would backfire on the organization.

If that is what happened, the sentiment that the Yankees would end up with another draft pick turned into one more year of Grisham. They would then be forced to stick with Grisham, who could very well be a one-hit wonder.

For those who are just looking at those numbers on the back of the baseball card, in the first month of the season, Grisham looked like he was going to be a flop this year, and last season was just another example of a guy having a career year, and his power surge was a mirage. The thing about Grisham was that his underlying metrics told a different story.

Trent Grisham's turnaround: under the hood

Closing out April, Grisham's contact rates showed a player who was crushing the ball but was running into bad luck. He had a .362 xw0BA, .448 xSLG, 91.8 mph average exit velocity, a 14.3% barrel rate, a 52.9% hard hit rate, and an 18.2% walk rate.

Unfortunately, since he was hitting .151/.298/.312 with a 79 wRC+, that one-year $22 million pact looked headed for bustville. Those numbers have been juiced up a bit, thankfully, after a better May. In fact, he looks like the Grisham of old with a few slight improvements.

The Big Sleep goes deep to put the Yankees up 10! pic.twitter.com/G5vODhaoxC

— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) May 27, 2026

Since May 1, Grisham has hit .267/.361/.438 with a 127 wRC+. He has three homers, 15 RBI, and three stolen bases while drawing 16 walks. Funny enough, Grisham also has nine doubles during this span. It's 10 total for 2026, and he had nine for all of 2025.

Grisham's overall numbers have gone up because of the month. They're still not great, but he's now hitting .212/.331/.379 with a slightly above-league-average 104 wRC+.

A better eye at the plate

Also, despite all the hate Grisham has been thrown his way, he has career-high walk and strikeout rates. He has a 15.3% walk rate and a 16.9% strikeout rate. It's actually the first time in his career he has had a strikeout rate below 20%. It's his lowest since 2021, when Grisham had a 22.6% strikeout rate.

Trent Grisham has done a much better job of not striking out at the plate as much as before. | Kevin R. Wexler-NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Since his numbers have looked poor, the idea that he's a leadoff hitter is preposterous to some. You get why anybody would say that, but the fact is, he's probably one of the better leadoff guys in baseball.

This isn't just being a contrarian for contrarians' sake. The numbers don't lie. There's still a lot of season left, of course. If he stinks it up, he'll surely be under fire again. That is the nature of New York, after all.

For now, the jewel of the Juan Soto trade is still pretty valuable.