Five pressing in-house questions for Yankees as 2026 nears

The calendar is about to flip to 2026, but there are still roughly six weeks left before pitchers and catchers report to Tampa for spring training.

That is still enough time this offseason for the Yankees to actually do something, even though at this point they appear poised to essentially run it back, which would be the case even if they are able to re-sign Cody Bellinger.

Regardless of bringing back Bellinger — their top priority but a free agent for whom they don’t want to be bidding against themselves — the Yankees will have questions from within to answer next season to determine how far they go.

Keep an eye on these five:

Can Grisham produce like a $22 million player?

The biggest and most expensive move the Yankees have made to date is extending the qualifying offer to Trent Grisham and having him accept it. It gives them protection in center field, especially if Bellinger leaves, but only if Grisham can repeat — or provide a reasonable percentage of — what he did in 2025, a career year in which he hit 34 home runs with a .811 OPS while becoming their regular leadoff hitter.

The Yankees believe this is sustainable because of the tweaks the 29-year-old made both physically and mentally in his seventh season as a big leaguer.

While his defensive metrics took a step back, manager Aaron Boone insists Grisham is capable of returning to his former Gold Glove form with improved health.

“I think overall you still watch him play the position, and you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s a real center fielder,’ ” Boone said at the winter meetings. “I think it’s not unrealistic that he gets back to being more in line with that Gold Glove-caliber guy with better health, with just having a good offseason. From a training standpoint, I think that’s still very much in there for him.”

Who’s on short … by the summer?

The Yankees do not expect Anthony Volpe to play in April, following the left shoulder surgery he underwent in October, and then he figures to still be finding his rhythm a bit by May. The club wants to give him every opportunity to show he can be the player they believe he can be, despite not doing it consistently enough though his first three seasons in the big leagues, so he is still expected to get that chance when he returns.

But what happens if José Caballero crushes it in April as the Yankees’ fill-in starting shortstop? At this time last year, no one expected Grisham to be the kind of impact player he was, an example that Cashman brought up while cracking the door slightly more open for Caballero to give the Yankees a difficult decision once Volpe is back.

Can Rice hit lefties well enough to be an everyday 1B?

Boone has already said he expects Ben Rice to play “a lot” against lefty starters next season after the Yankees mostly protected him against left-on-left situations last year. But now without Paul Goldschmidt as a security blanket, Rice is poised to get everyday starts at first base (assuming he is not needed at catcher), which means holding his own against lefties to further solidify himself as the big middle-of-the-order beast the Yankees see him as. In 119 plate appearances against them last season, Rice hit .208 with a .752 OPS and seven home runs.

Can Wells bounce back offensively?

Austin Wells has answered most of the questions that arrived with him in the big leagues about whether he could remain at catcher long-term, now routinely praised for how he handles the pitching staff and his work behind the plate.

The bigger question now is whether he can rediscover his form at the plate after a season in which he largely struggled offensively.

“I think he’s one of the better catchers in the game on both sides of the ball,” general manager Brian Cashman said earlier this month. “I think there’s a lot better offense in there than what we saw last year. I look forward to seeing that play back this year because I think you’ll see better results.”

Was the Schlittler experience for real?

The Yankees had high hopes for rookie right-hander Cam Schlittler when they called him up for his debut in July after Clarke Schmidt needed Tommy John surgery. What he delivered was better than anyone could have reasonably expected, capped off by his masterpiece against the Red Sox in the clinching game of the AL wild-card series.

But what does he do for an encore, with expectations now heightened? His high-ceiling presence may be part of why the Yankees haven’t gone hard for a free-agent starter. But they need him to deliver over a full season now, coming off a career-high workload.