Trent Grisham Has Been a Big Surprise for the Yankees in 2025

When the New York Yankees acquired Trent Grisham from the San Diego Padres, he was simply an afterthought as a throw-in piece of the Juan Soto trade. In fact, many viewed Grisham as something of a salary dump for the Padres, who were moving on from a fourth outfielder that was starting to get deeper into his arbitration.

Filling that same fourth outfielder role for the Yankees, Grisham hit just .190/.290/.385, with nine home runs and 31 RBIs in 76 games played. This year, with Soto gone, Grisham has been placed in a more prominent role, and he is earning more playing time with each passing day.

So far this season, Grisham is hitting .292/.370/.639 with an OPS of 1.009 and eight home runs across 81 plate appearances. This has led to a wRC+ of 187 and a WAR of 1.0 in 25 games played. This puts Grisham behind only Cedric Mullins among AL center fielders.

Grisham is one home run away from matching his 2024 total, and has done so in well less than half the at-bats. He has already doubled his fWAR from last season, and is well on his way to a career year at 28 years old.

It is unlikely that this production will continue at this rate, but if Grisham settles somewhere between what he is this year and what he has been the last few years, the Yankees will have an above-average center fielder they can feel confident in moving forward.

All stats for this article were prior to the games played on May 2nd, 2025.

Why can we believe that Grisham to keep producing

Grisham has made improvements that have put him in a position to be successful. Grisham has changed his stance this season from a closed stance last year to an open stance, which has led to early success so far.

This open stance can help Grisham see pitches longer and give him a clear bat path, keeping the barrel in the zone longer. Grisham has also changed his load with his hands, bringing them more upright compared to last season, where his hands were more relaxed.

This can allow for less movement with his hands in his load and a simplified path to the ball, which will lead to more contact and better at-bats due to the lack of movement in his load.

This has led to Grisham having the best barrel rate of his career at 16.4%, which is 4.4% higher than his previous highest rate.

Along with Grisham’s Barrel rate, he also saw an increase in launch angle, average exit velocity, and pull in the air rate. Grisham is hitting the ball harder and in the air more often, as well as pulling the ball the most in his career. Grisham is tapping into his pull side power, and as a lefty in Yankee Stadium, this can lead to more extra base hits and homers.

When looking at Trent Grisham’s Baseball Savant page, it is as red as it has ever been in his career, with all contact quality stats being in the 83rd percentile and better. Grisham is also above average on every hitting stat except bat speed, which doesn’t matter if he is hitting the ball as hard as he is.

Another important change in Grisham’s game that can be credited to his new approach is his improved strikeout rate thus far in 2025. For the past three seasons, Grisham has carried strikeout rates above 27% each season, moving his career K-rate to 26.1%.

This season, Grisham is only striking out 21% of the time, while still walking at a very solid 9.9% clip. His ability to put the ball in play this year has been key to his success, and that ability to put bat on ball is evident in a career-best 89.2% zone contact rate.

This production is unsustainable, but it is undeniable that his newfound approach has made a significant difference. As long as he continues to hit the ball hard he can be an impactful player for the Yankees.

How Important Trent Grisham really has been to the Yankees

It’s hard to argue that any team started as hot as the New York Yankees, who swept their first series against the Brewers. Game two was a game that made history with the Yankees hitting 9 jacks, which is a franchise record, leading to a 20-9 win. They followed it up with a 12-3 victory to complete the sweep.

As the season progressed, some Yankees have begun to slide a bit, but through it all, Trent Grisham has continued to come up with great at-bats and timely hits that have made a serious impact in helping the Yankees be first in the division.

Key guys like Austin Wells, Cody Bellinger, and Jazz Chisholm have had lackluster results so far, with all of them hitting under .220. The Yankees as a whole have been struggling with the swing and miss, and Grisham has been a bright spot in putting the ball in play.

Trent Grisham has created a good problem for manager Aaron Boone and the Yankees, where he is forcing their hand to keep him in the lineup. Not only is Grisham swinging the second-hottest bat on the team, only second to Aaron Judge, but he is also one of the best defensive outfielders in the game.

Aaron Boone has already expressed interest on a continued effort in getting Grisham in the lineup as much as possible and it has been hard to blame him so far. It will be interesting to see how the Yankees handle the outfield situation, especially with them preferring Bellinger, Grisham, and Dominguez all to be in the lineup when a right-handed pitcher is on the mound.

One thing is certain: the best thing for the Bronx Bombers is to have Trent Grisham patrolling center field as long as he continues to hit the ball hard and utilizes the short porch.