Can Yankees' Trent Grisham Live Up to Price Tag?

New York Yankees center fielder Trent Grisham made a smart move this offseason: he took the $22 million qualifying offer to stay in New York. Now he just has to earn it.

The choice to stay was a vote of confidence for himself, and with any luck, a multi-year deal with the Yankees will await him after 2026. The team will count on him as a defender in an outfield that looks shaky at the moment, so there are big opportunities and big risks to the decision he's made. It looks like something Aaron Judge did years ago, and he'll hope to follow that example in more ways than one.

In his list of pressing offseason questions for the Yankees, The New York Post's Greg Joyce listed Grisham's performance first, with the hope that he can repeat his career-best performance from 2025 given the price to retain him. Grisham finished 2025 with an .812 OPS, 34 homers and 74 RBIs, all career highs.

Question Marks Remain

Sep 20, 2025; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; New York Yankees outfielder Trent Grisham (12) celebrates after hitting a single during the second inning against the Baltimore Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Kucin Jr.-Imagn Images | Daniel Kucin Jr.-Imagn Images

On the other hand, he went quiet in the postseason, and fans remembered that most vividly when he rejoined the team. Grisham represents the Yankees' biggest financial swing so far, and hopefully the doubt from fans will only fuel him. Grisham was second only to Judge in on-base percentage and home runs in 2025, and seems to believe that he'll only improve.

Grisham could use some work in the outfield, raking in the 32nd percentile among defenders with -2 outs above average, but Yankees manager Aaron Boone noted his faith in Grisham at the recent winter meetings.

Front Office Confidence

“I think overall you still watch him play the position, and you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s a real center fielder,’ ” Boone said. “I think it’s not unrealistic that he gets back to being more in line with that Gold Glove-caliber guy with better health, with just having a good offseason. From a training standpoint, I think that’s still very much in there for him.”

Oct 2, 2025; Bronx, New York, USA; New York Yankee outfielders Cody Bellinger (35), Trent Grisham (12) and Aaron Judge (99) react following game three of the Wildcard round for the 2025 MLB playoffs against the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

When Grisham accepted the qualifying offer, general manager Brian Cashman suggested that if he had put himself out there on the open market, he would have been the third-best available outfielder (behind Cody Bellinger and Kyle Tucker), and that he would not have been surprised. Cashman also described Grisham as an important piece of their outfield taken care of, and praised the 29-year-old for his ability to perform under pressure so far.

“All the underlying information that leads you to believe — real or not real, it points to the real arrow,” Cashman said, via the New York Post. “All the support information backs up that the changes he made are real and it should continue.

“He did it all [here], and he was doing it home and road, too, so it wasn’t the Yankee Stadium effect or what have you. He answered a lot of questions. It came unexpected, [but] thankful it did.”

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