Despite losing Juan Soto this offseason, the New York Yankees currently lead the MLB in home runs, OPS, and sit atop the powerhouse AL East. Aaron Judge is doing his thing putting up MVP numbers, but surprisingly, the supporting cast has been getting it done. One player in specific has got Yankees fans ecstatic by his early performance. That would be Trent Grisham, who has been tearing the cover off of the baseball.
Trent Grisham’s 2025 Season
Last season, Trent Grisham was traded to the Yankees as a part of the deal that sent Juan Soto to the Big Apple. Grisham was the Yankees’ fourth outfielder in 2024 and had a role more focused on his defense rather than what he could provide at the plate.
This season has been a different story. Grisham is tied for ninth in the MLB with nine home runs and currently has an OPS of .972. Throughout his career, Grisham has had a lot of swing and miss in his game. However, this season his strikeout rate is at 54% and his whiff rate is at 87%, per Baseball Savant. These numbers are massive jumps compared to his career, where he has typically been below average or straight up bad in these categories.
The Yankees coaching staff has also noticed this development in Grish’s game and have moved him to the top of the lineup, where he is the primary leadoff hitter nowadays. One of the big adjustments Grisham has made is opening his stance up. It’s paid dividends early on, and the Yankees coaching staff is showing that they believe in him.
Reality Check
Even with all this success, we need to talk about his career before this season. There’s a much larger sample size and the offense prowess has not always been there for Grish. In the prior three seasons, he has failed to hit over .200 and averaged out with a .651 OPS. Those numbers aren’t just failing to get it done, they are among the bottom dwellers of the MLB.
Now, Grisham has made changes to his stance and his home ballpark does has the short porch. Maybe these early numbers are a sign of what’s to come. The problem is Grisham has always been a streaky hitter.
Let’s take 2022 as an example. Grisham was the Padres’ everyday Centerfielder and failed to post an OPS above .700 in any month of the season, until August. He had an OPS of .838 in August and rode that hot streak into the postseason. In the first two series, he was a catalyst for the Padres where he posted a 1.328 OPS with three home runs. Then, a cold streak hit and he went 0-19 with nine strikeouts in the NLCS. That’s Trent Grisham’s career in a nutshell.
The reality is that Trent Grisham is not going to keep up this phenomenal offensive season. Still, I don’t want to act like he can’t be valuable for the Yankees. He is a two-time Gold Glove winner in Centerfield and he has pop. Let’s say Grisham’s offensive numbers fall off of the face of the earth (as we should expect), he can still be a huge piece for the Yankees. Elite defense in Centerfield and 25 bombs, sign me up!
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