Tuesday afternoon was the deadline for players with a qualifying offer to accept them or head into free agency this winter. The Yankees had one offer out to Trent Grisham, and today he has opted to accept it and return back to the Yankees for 2026.
This means the Yankees will owe Grisham $22.05 million next season, which could be an interesting test of their offseason plans.
Grisham was originally a bit of a throw in to the
Juan Soto trade back in December 2023, with the Yankees taking on his contract off the Padres’ books and lightening the load they had to give up in return. He was mainly a bench player in the 2024 season and didn’t produce a ton.
Grisham then got some playing time early in the 2025 and made the most of it. His hot start got him regular appearances in the Yankees’ lineup and he eventually turned into an invaluable bat. In 2025, Grisham hit .235/.348/.464 with 34 home runs, a 129 wRC+, and 3.2 fWAR. No one would’ve guessed before the season that the Yankees would’ve ended up giving him the qualifying offer, but in their mind, he was clearly good enough that they felt they needed to.
Either decision Grisham made would’ve been an interesting one for him. In terms of total money, he almost certainly could’ve found a multi-year offer out on the free agent market that would’ve netted him more than the $22.05 million. However, on an average annual value basis, any long term deal probably wouldn’t have reached that total. Grisham is opting to take that money now and bet on himself to have a good season and be in a position to get multi-year offers again next offseason. That may be right, but any injury or dip in production will eat away at that and potentially cost him more money in the long run.
The $22.05 million does represent an pretty large increase on the $5 million that he was making in 2025. Considering the luxury tax games that Hal Steinbrenner and company like to play, that could potentially put a dent in any offseason plans, but Brian Cashman has earlier said that it won’t definitively.
You can make arguments for or against having Grisham back for 2026, but if he hits like he did last year, he’ll be a very helpful bat to have around.
