When the Yankees extended the qualifying offer to Trent Grisham, I’ll admit I thought it was a calculated bluff. The expectation was that he’d chase a multi-year deal in a thin market, netting the Yankees a draft pick. Instead, he signed the one-year, $22 million deal, and after watching free agency descend into madness, General Manager Brian Cashman looks like a genius by accident.
Cashman isn’t hiding his relief, explicitly noting that the market explosion made this deal a steal. “At this point, that $22 million looks like a bargain the way the free agent market got away from everyone, on a one-year basis,” Cashman said Sunday morning. I’m skeptical of calling $22 million for a .235 hitter a “bargain” in a vacuum, but compared to the contracts handed out this winter, he might be right.
The Front Office Believes the Power Spike Is Real
The Yankees are banking on Grisham’s 2025 breakout being the new normal, not an outlier. The center fielder launched a career-high 34 home runs and posted an .812 OPS, numbers that finally matched his raw talent. Cashman is sold on the underlying data, stating, “What he did last year to unlock and take it to another level was spectacular… [we] believe clearly that by offering him the qualifying offer that [2025] was real, it is sustainable.”
If you dig into the metrics, you can see why the Yankees are confident. Grisham possessed arguably the most disciplined eye in baseball last season, ranking in the 99th percentile for Chase Rate and the 96th percentile for Walk Rate (14.1%). He wasn’t just swinging for the fences; he was forcing pitchers to come to him, and when they did, he barreled the ball at an 89th percentile rate.
The Defense Is the $22 Million Question Mark
However, I have to point out the elephant in the room: his defense. The former Gold Glover saw his value plummet in the field, dropping to the 32nd percentile for Range (OAA) and the 27th percentile for Arm Value. The Yankees are paying for the bat, but if the glove doesn’t bounce back, that $22 million might feel heavier than Cashman admits.
“We’re really happy he chose to stay with us… hopefully he can replicate what he did last year for us because it was one of the reasons we had the success we had and made the postseason,” Cashman added. The Yankees have their power threat, but they need the complete player to justify the price tag.