{"id":44126,"date":"2025-11-18T21:40:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T21:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/44126\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T21:40:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T21:40:06","slug":"where-do-yankees-go-from-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/44126\/","title":{"rendered":"Where do Yankees go from here?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Instead of chasing a multi-year deal, Trent Grisham<\/a> is returning to the Bronx for another season.<\/p>\n

The center fielder has accepted the one-year qualifying offer that the Yankees extended him earlier this month<\/a>, multiple sources confirmed with the Daily News ahead of Tuesday\u2019s 4 p.m. deadline. The offer, worth $22.025 million, will pay Grisham a substantial raise after he made $5 million in 2025 and barely played in 2024, his first season in pinstripes after coming over in the Juan Soto trade.<\/p>\n

It will also keep the 29-year-old in a city that he\u2019s enjoyed over the last two seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like this place a lot,\u201d Grisham said in August<\/a>. \u201cI like the guys we have in the clubhouse. I like New York. There\u2019s a lot of things I like about it, so we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grisham could have searched for more security after enjoying a career year in 2025, as the left-handed hitter blasted 34 home runs to go with an .811 OPS and 129 wRC+. However, his offensive output was unprecedented, and his once- Gold Glove defense took a hit, potentially warding off suitors.<\/p>\n

While metrics like barrel percentage, exit velocity and xwOBA suggest Grisham\u2019s breakout wasn\u2019t a one-off \u2013 he also attributed his success to a better mental approach<\/a> \u2013 he posted a .191 average with a .651 OPS and an 87 wRC+ from 2022-2024. And while Grisham played through a hamstring injury for a bit in 2025, he had -2 Outs Above Average, -11 Defensive Runs Saved and a -3 Fielding Run Value, all career worsts, with a sprint speed that ranked in the 32nd percentile.<\/p>\n

Because Grisham was given the qualifying offer, he also had draft pick compensation attached to his free agency. A team paying the competitive balance tax would have lost its second- and fifth-highest selections, as well as $1 million from its international bonus pool for the upcoming signing period, for inking Grisham. A revenue-sharing team would have forfeited its third-highest pick.<\/p>\n

Generally speaking, qualifying offers and the accompanying draft pick compensation can depress a free agent\u2019s market. Grisham can try his hand at free agency again next year without the detriment of the qualifying offer.<\/p>\n

For now, Grisham is expected to remain the Yankees\u2019 center fielder despite a down defensive season, though they can still trade him. The team is also expected to continue its pursuit of re-signing Cody Bellinger.<\/p>\n

Just last week, Brian Cashman said the Yankees would remain engaged with Bellinger regardless of Grisham\u2019s qualifying offer decision<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d be happy if [Grisham] accepted [the qualifying offer] and came back,\u201d Cashman said. \u201cIf we get a call at some point that he accepts, our conversations with Scott Boras on Bellinger will continue, and we\u2019ll see where that takes us. And if [Grisham] rejects, we\u2019ll be talking to both Grisham and Bellinger regardless, and then we\u2019ll continue keeping an eye on the guys we have from within.\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n

With Grisham and Ryan Yarbrough back, the Yankees\u2019 projected competitive balance tax payroll for 2026 is about $282.53 million. The second-highest threshold for competitive balance tax penalties is $284 million in 2026, while the highest threshold is $304 million.<\/p>\n

With Bellinger wanted back and the Yankees also looking for pitching help and a platoon bench bat, the team will have a tough time staying under a $300 million payroll, an amount that owner Hal Steinbrenner has called \u201cunsustainable\u201d despite exceeding it each of the last two seasons.<\/p>\n

Cashman said that the Yankees have a \u201cfluid\u201d payroll and that he hasn\u2019t been given an \u201cultimate\u201d number to work with.<\/p>\n

\u201cOut of all the things that we have here with the organization, payroll usually is not an issue that we\u2019ve had to deal with much of,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

If the Yankees are also able to retain Bellinger, they could trade one of their young outfielders \u2013 Jasson Dom\u00ednguez or top-100 prospect Spencer Jones<\/a> \u2013 for help elsewhere on the roster.<\/p>\n

The team believes the defensively limited Dom\u00ednguez is better off in left, which is where Bellinger would primarily play, while Jones still comes with concerns over his strikeout and contact rates despite a monstrous 2025 campaign split between Double-A and Triple-A.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf one of those guys comes back, it creates nice competition,\u201d Cashman said of Grisham and Bellinger. \u201cIf both come back, then maybe it creates trade flexibility.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Instead of chasing a multi-year deal, Trent Grisham is returning to the Bronx for another season. The center…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44127,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,20,9,24,63,25379,129,131,130,5390,16301],"class_list":["post-44126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-mlb","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-qualifying-offer","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news","tag-trent-grisham","tag-yankees"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}