Trent Grisham Accepted His Qualifying Offer. Now What?

By E.J. Fagan

November 2025

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NOTE: The following comes from EJ Fagan's substack page and is shared with permission.

Please check out EJ's substack page for more great articles.

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Trent Grisham will earn $22 million next year as a Yankee. While I previously thought that the Yankees could trade him if he accepted, I was wrong. Grisham would have to consent to any trade before June. For better or for worse, he’s probably on the roster for next year.

In a vacuum, I think that Grisham is pretty valuable on a one year deal. I think he’s overrated in center field, but he’s very playable there. The Yankees had the best outfield in the majors last year in part due to Grisham’s breakout performance.

But Grisham is going to create a few roster issues for the Yankees.

The playoffs definitely revealed a weakness. Grisham was a platoon player in 2025. Against righties, he hit an impressive .254/.364/.506. Against lefties, he hit .182/.303/.348. The Blue Jays and Red Sox used a lot of lefty relievers against the top of the Yankees lineup to try and neutralize Grisham, Rice and Chisholm.

That makes Grisham a particularly poor player to pair with Jasson Dominguez. Dominguez hit .274/.348/.420 against righties and just .204/.279/.290 against lefties. He basically stopped playing late in the year because Grisham or the bench players were better options in every situation.

To make matters worse for Dominguez, the Yankees still seem interested in signing Cody Bellinger. Grisham isn’t a long term solution in the outfield, and Bellinger was even better in 2025 (better than even Kyle Tucker by bWAR).

What will happen to Dominguez? Personally, I hope they send him down. While he’s probably a major league player, he’s a flawed one right now. His defense in left field was atrocious in 2025. And while he hit well enough against right-handed pitching, let’s not pretend that a .420 slug is anything to write home about. He was arguably worse than Austin Slater in 2025. I hope he gives up switch hitting.

But they also might trade Dominguez. I bet he could be the centerpiece of a significant trade for someone with 2-3 years of team control left. I was going to propose Dominguez for Steven Kwan, but that ship is probably sailed unless Bellinger signs elsewhere. If they do sign Bellinger, then the outfield market becomes basically Kyle Tucker and a bunch of scrubs. The Yankees might be able to get good value for Dominguez or Spencer Jones.

Another possibility is that Giancarlo Stanton develops another mysterious injury that keeps in on the injured list until mid-season. In that case, DH would be shared between the three Yankee outfielders. The Yankees would then punt any decision on Dominguez for a few months, when they could trade Grisham if need be.

Grisham’s salary also puts pressure on the Yankees budget. If they resign Bellinger, they’ll be right around $300 million before bolstering their bench or adding starting pitching. It’s hard to see them clearing much additional money off the roster, so I have to believe that the Yankees are going to have to increase their total spending a bit for 2026. Given that they are interested Tatsuya Imai, who would break their budget, I wouldn’t write off the possibility that the Yankees do spend a bit more. The luxury tax thresholds are likely to jump again after the new CBA in 2027.

One final takeaway from Grisham returning: the Yankees sure need a right handed bench. Three of their five best hitters (Grisham, Chisholm, Rice) were pretty hard platoon players last year, plus Dominguez, Wells and McMahon. Amed Rosario and Austin Slater were great ideas at the deadline and I hope the Yankees bring them back. A right-handed backup catcher would be nice too.