With the departure of Juan Soto last winter, the only thing left — besides an American League pennant, which isn’t nothing — left in the Bronx from the trade with the Padres was Trent Grisham. In the deal, the Yankees took on Grisham’s salary to get the Padres to accept a lesser prospect package than it otherwise might’ve taken to acquire a talent like Soto.
In his first year with the Yankees, Grisham got sparing playing time. He has mostly played center field in his career, but that spot was taken
up by Aaron Judge, whose normal right field spot was taken up by Soto, who couldn’t DH all that much with Giancarlo Stanton needing that slot. Grisham did appear in 76 games in 2024, but his playing time was often stop-and-start, and he got off to a very slow start, hitting-wise.
The plan going into 2025 was for Grisham to again occupy a fourth outfielder-ish role, as the Yankees added Cody Bellinger and had Jasson Domínguez fully back and healthy. Instead, Grisham hit the ground running, and forced the Yankees’ hand, producing one of the more unexpectedly great seasons in recent memory
Grade: A
2025 Statistics: 143 games, .235/.348/.464, 34 home runs, 87 RBI, 129 wRC+, -2 OAA, 3.2 fWAR
2026 Contract Status: Free agent
Grisham made one start in the first Yankee series, but in a couple of the early games, he was used as a late game defensive replacement in center field. In the sixth game of the season, he went 3-for-4 with a homer and three RBI and after that, he…just never really relinquished his spot in the lineup. By the end of April, he was still OPSing over 1.000 and already had eight home runs on the season.
Grisham didn’t quite hit to that level over the reason of the season, but he was still very good. He hit 34 home runs and by almost every offensive statistic, he had a career best season. Even though his defense in center didn’t rate quite as well as it has in the past, his 3.2 fWAR and 3.5 rWAR total are also the best of any year in his career to this point. He became the perfect player to hit leadoff ahead of the likes of Judge. There were plenty of us making jokes that the deal that landed him in New York was now the “Trent Grisham Trade” instead of the headliner that was Soto.
In addition to his good numbers overall, Grisham also had a number of clutch moments. The most memorable of those probably came on July 19th against the Braves. He hit a two-out, go-ahead grand slam in the top of the ninth, helping the Yankees win a game they had trailed 5-0 and 7-2 at points.
As for going forward, Grisham is now set to hit the free agent market. Despite what he just did for the Yankees this season, it does seem a little unlikely that they would retain him. Just pure offense-wise, Bellinger seems the more likely Bomber outfield hitting free agency to replicate what he did in 2025. Plus if the Yankees want to spend big to upgrade, Kyle Tucker is also hitting the market. If Grisham’s market breaks down and they can get him on a short-term deal, he might not be a bad option, but he seems like a prime candidate to give a pat on the back and thank them for an unexpected but very fun season.
