Over the course of the 2025 season, I have repeatedly fallen into the trap of underrating Trent Grisham. Despite the career year the Yankees’ center fielder has put together, my attitude towards him at the outset was skeptical, wanting to see more. After all, just about anybody can start the season on fire and coast on the early results from there. I was wary to expect a star emerge from a player who had been a 92 wRC+ hitter across three full-length seasons in San Diego, and who looked lost in a bench
role for much of last year.
Grisham did indeed begin the year on fire, with eight home runs and a 1.009 OPS by the end of April. It was an immediate turnaround from that tepid 2024, and a sign that the Yankees’ offense might not drop off so dramatically following the departures of Juan Soto and Gleyber Torres. In fact, around this time my Pinstripe Alley colleagues and I took to calling that winter 2023 deal with the Padres “The Trent Grisham Trade.” We did so with a sense of irony about the whole thing, likely with an eye on the inevitable regression Grisham would experience.
Grisham did come down to earth in the following months, and as he did I could feel my preseason expectations for him reassert themselves. Grisham’s April was a nice surprise, but to me it didn’t feel indicative of a true step forward. He was still taking his walks and cracking the occasional tater, but by the All-Star break, I was fully convinced he would be merely ho-hum the rest of the year.
Instead, Grisham came out of the intermission with a bang. Two games into the second half, with the Yankees caught in a dogfight with the Braves, he crushed a two-out go-ahead grand slam to give the Bombers a much-needed win. A few weeks later, with the Yankees in the throes of their annual disastrous summer skid, he smashed another late-inning go-ahead homer to lift them to victory against the Astros in the Bronx. It was clear that whatever summer bug had bitten the Bombers, Grisham was immune—or at least more resistant than most of his teammates. He has continued to produce highlights throughout the summer, and this week has seen him absolutely locked in at the dish, with five home runs across New York’s six-game winning streak from Sunday to Thursday night.
Thanks to this recent barrage, Grisham sits two long balls away from 30 on the season. His previous career-high was 17. It’s become clear that my perception of him was nearsighted. This man is indeed a much better ballplayer than he was in the past.
It hasn’t required a major re-invention on his part: he has turned himself into a powerhouse by leaning into his greatest strengths. He’s still a patient, even somewhat passive hitter who swings far less than the major league average, but who will very rarely expand the strike zone. While over the past few seasons he has been a decent fastball hitter, Grisham has transformed into one of the league’s top heater-hitters in 2025.
When I watched Grisham’s two-homer night against Dustin May on Sunday night, I recall thinking it was a very Kyle Schwarber-esque performance. But Grisham’s body of work this year has borne more than a passing resemblance to the National League’s leading slugger. Schwarber has been the top hitter in baseball against four-seam fastballs this year with a +27 Statcast Run Value. Number two on the list is Soto, Grisham’s partner in that fateful trade. Sitting in a tie for third place in baseball with Aaron Judge is Grisham himself, at a +16 RV. And not only has he crushed heaters when he makes contact, with a .628 slugging percentage, he rarely misses them: just a 16.1 percent whiff rate.
His improved rate of contact on fastballs has allowed him to cut back on the most onerous of the three true outcomes—his K rate is down nearly six percentage points from 2024—while not sacrificing the other two. We mentioned his career high in long balls—that’s aided by a fly ball pull rate of 24.2 percent, which has allowed him to tap into his power more reliably despite not having 80-grade pop. Futhermore, his 13.5 percent walk rate is tied with his 2023 season for the best mark of his career.
And indeed, much of his best work has come lately. He now has 10 home runs in the month of August, with a .923 OPS. Across a long season, two months of production that torrid can add up to a great overall statline. But that’s not to say he’s been bad outside of April and August. His only subpar month production-wise was June, in which his strikeouts went up and he had a .690 OPS. Even then, his OBP was a healthy .340. It hasn’t been a boom-or-bust season for Grisham—it’s mostly just been boom.
Aesthetically speaking, Grisham is in many ways a throwback to the past: from the lack of batting gloves to the manicured mustache to the short, compact stroke that looks effortless compared to the ferocious hacks sluggers take these days. Even the casual way in which he fields most fly balls‐–which is decidedly not how old-school coaches would teach it—it all gives him a low-key energy which can make him easy to look past. But with the Yankees caught in a three-team battle for divisional supremacy and every game mattering down the stretch, Grisham has been one of the Yankees’ most critical and consistent contributors. You can’t overlook that. So I apologize, Trent. I won’t sleep on you again.
