Trent Grisham is reportedly staying in the Bronx.
The Yankee outfielder, according to The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal, accepted the team’s qualifying offer, which was a tad over $22 million this year. The Yanks would have been due a compensatory draft pick if he had rejected the offer and signed elsewhere since they presented their center fielder with the qualifying offer.
The Yanks giving Grisham the qualifying offer was seen as a bit of a surprise by some, considering that salary on the books, should he have accepted, could complicate the team’s pursuit of Cody Bellinger, another outfielder who was a pillar of the 2025 squad that won 94 games.
Grisham enjoyed a career year, hitting 34 home runs (his previous season high was 17 in 2022) while posting an .811 OPS. The two-time Gold Glove winner was seen as a light-hitting defensive replacement when brought to the Bronx as part of the Juan Soto trade, but last season, he emerged as one of the team’s top bats alongside Aaron Judge, though he struggled mightily in the playoffs.
Despite the career year, Grisham elected to take the safe payday and perhaps show that 2025 was no fluke, which could set himself up for a bigger payday after the 2026 season. The next question facing the Yanks will be how this impacts the rest of their outfield construction.