Grisham wants to get back to Gold Glove ways. Sure looks like he’s well on his way

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Trent Grisham was shaded in the wrong direction in the second inning on Sunday, scrambling when the Phillies’ Bryson Stott ripped a line drive toward the gap in right-center field.

Legs churning, the Yankees center fielder sprinted and made a full-extension dive, robbing an extra-base hit during the club’s 5-3 win over Philly at BayCare Ballpark. It was the kind of play the club expects to see more often now that Grisham has fully recovered from the left hamstring injury that lingered throughout much of last season.

“It’s good to get a diving catch out of the way early,” Grisham said.

Grisham enjoyed the best offensive season of his career in 2025, setting career highs in runs (87), hits (116), homers (34), RBIs (74), slugging percentage (.464) and OPS+ (125). But the two-time Gold Glove Award winner (2020, ‘22) took a step back defensively.

He posted minus-3 fielding run value and minus-2 outs above average, the first time he has finished in the negative in both Statcast categories. From 2019-24, Grisham ranked fourth among MLB center fielders with 16 OAA.

“It’s not something I’ve ever really had to worry about,” Grisham said. “When there’s enough data in the middle of the year, I like to know where I am in the pack as far as center fielders go. I knew I was down toward the bottom of the list that year. I took that personally this offseason and wanted to get better.

“It was more mentally putting a chip back on my shoulder to get that edge again.”

Grisham also posted the worst jumps of his career on average last season, which can be traced in part to the hamstring issue. It recalls an episode from last June in Toronto, a day after Grisham caught a cleat on the Rogers Centre turf and exited early.

The Yankees were so concerned about Grisham’s health that they summoned outfielder Bryan De La Cruz from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, waiting to see if Grisham could make it through batting practice. After going through a few light sprints, Grisham promised he could play through the issue.

De La Cruz cleaned out his locker and headed back to the airport -- close to being on the Yankees roster, but never officially there.

“I felt good enough to go at the end of the day and play,” said Grisham, who also dealt with the hamstring issue last spring. “Maybe I was not quite 100 percent, but it wasn’t really about that. It was about wanting to be out there and playing, and I felt like I could do a pretty good job out there.”

Yankees manager Aaron Boone believes the defensive metrics were impacted by the injury, particularly during the mid-summer months.

“Sometimes if there’s a handful of plays that don’t get made in the gap, that’s going to ding you pretty hard,” Boone said. “In the middle of the season, we had a handful of balls that he normally gets to and moves the needle on the metrics.

“To his credit, he was still playing well through that, but nursing that for a period of time. I expect him to be really good out there, and hopefully the metrics support that he’s back in line with who he’s been his whole career.”

That context factored into the Yankees’ November decision to extend Grisham a qualifying offer, valued at $22.025 million.

After seeing how the rest of the winter played out, general manager Brian Cashman said Grisham’s deal “looks like a bargain,” rating him as the third-best available free agent outfielder behind Kyle Tucker (four years, $240 million from Dodgers) and Cody Bellinger (five years, $162.5 million from Yankees).

“All the information we buy into leads us to believe,” Cashman said of Grisham, “that [performance] was real and that is sustainable, and that he is an offensive and defensive player for us as we move forward.”

If Grisham pairs his 2025 offense with a return to his previous defensive levels, the Yankees may indeed have found a steal. Grisham said he debated taking the qualifying offer throughout the full 12-day window, calling it “a weighty decision” that ultimately came down to one priority.

“Winning. I wanted to win,” Grisham said. “I think that’s how you get the best out of yourself as a player. That was just my priority. That weighed most into the decision.”