Trent Grisham is running it back with the Yankees, who will get to find out just how real his breakout season was.
The centerfielder on Tuesday accepted the one-year, $22.025 million qualifying offer from the Yankees, giving them some insurance heading into the offseason but also tying up a large chunk of money coming off a career year.
The return of Grisham should not impact the Yankees’ top priority — re-signing Cody Bellinger — as GM Brian Cashman said last week he would continue to have conversations with Bellinger’s agent, Scott Boras, even if Grisham accepted the qualifying offer.
“[Grisham] had a hell of a year for us, one of the big reasons why we had the level of success we did,” Cashman said last week. “We’d be happy if he accepted and came back.”
Grisham could have opted to test the free-agent market, which is especially thin in the outfield (center field in particular), one reason the Yankees may have thought he would decline it and fetch them a compensatory draft pick if he had signed elsewhere.
Instead, Grisham is coming back at an average annual value higher than he likely would have gotten on the market and creating some questions about how the Yankees will handle their outfield situation this offseason. If they are also able to re-sign Bellinger, that would make Jasson Domínguez and Spencer Jones potential trade chips. If Bellinger does not return, Domínguez could be in line to handle left field again, perhaps with Jones getting a chance to prove himself in camp.
The 29-year-old Grisham is coming off a career year, in which he crushed 34 home runs and posted a .811 OPS across 143 games.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
