Trent Grisham Accepting Qualifying Offer Likely Pushes Yankees’ Payroll Over $300 Million

When Cody Bellinger struck out against Jeff Hoffman with Aaron Judge on first base in Game 4 of the ALDS against the Toronto Blue Jays on Oct. 8, the Yankees ended their season in a disappointing way with a payroll of about $305 million or approximately $100 million less than the two-time World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers.

Trent Grisham occupied a little over five million salary and his 34 homers in 494 at-bats made him amongst the better values for any team. It is the kind of salary and production a team with any kind of payroll would savior.

No matter how many homers Grisham slugs next season, he will be doing so as someone making $22.025 million. Grisham is getting a raise of over quadruple his 2025 salary t after taking the one-year qualifying offer, joining Brandon Woodruff (Brewers), Shota Imanaga (Cubs) and Gleyber Torres (Tigers).

The quartet who opted to accept the qualifying offer increased the total to 18 players all-time to accept the qualifying offer and quadruples the total from each of the past two winters.

Grisham’s salary for next season is about five million less than what Bellinger made last season when he played all three outfield positions and nearly finished with 30 homers and 100 RBIs in his best season since his time with the Dodgers.

Bellinger and agent Scott Boras will certainly seek more on an annual basis and as of now Grisham is tied with Giancarlo Stanton for the fifth-highest salary on the Yankees behind Aaron Judge, Gerrit Cole, Max Fried and Carlos Rodon.

In recent years, managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner often says how he does not think a $300 million payroll is necessary, but the Yankees are a combined 188-136 in the past two regular seasons with that figure, and it seems retaining Bellinger might nudge the Yankees over that figure.

The Yankees offered Grisham the qualifying offer, not necessarily knowing he would take it and possibly deep down hoping he would test the open market so they could get a draft pick if he went elsewhere.

Instead, Grisham might have figured this was a career season and his left-handed swing was suitable for Yankee Stadium. His golf like swing produced 13 homers at Yankee Stadium though he hit .195 there and he hit about 20 of his homers to right field in all locations.

“I felt like he had a chance to be really productive,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said at some point towards the end of the season. “He’s taken the opportunity and completely run with it and put together a real career here for himself.”

Grisham’s big power season was part of a year where he batted .235, which was seven points lower than what he hit in 2021 with the San Diego Padres. He batted .184 in 2022 though the Mets could not get him out in the wild-card series and then he batted.198 in 153 games for the 2023 Padres, who included him in the Juan Soto trade.

While Soto shined in his lone season with the Yankees before signing his massive contract with the Mets, Grisham rarely left the bench, getting 179 at-bats in 76 games. He hit nine homers in those opportunities, a clip of one homer per 19.8 at-bats.

Grisham’s big power season lifted his career average to .218 and it is possible if he went on the open market, many teams might be cautious and think his big power was a product of playing half the time at Yankee Stadium.

Repeating career seasons in a major category such as homers and RBIs are difficult to replicate, and a microscope will be there for Grisham, especially with his massive raise.

It is a topic that will be rehashed numerous times on sports talk radio along with the current consternation about what it means to the Yankees potential payroll.

The Yankees know the cost of doing business is increasing, especially with more revenue from various television packages and other income sources such as non-baseball events at Yankee Stadium and they bring a track record of putting the money to the use of signing the player they really want such as in the case with Cole in 2019, Judge and Rodon in 2022 and Max Fried last offseason.