Yankees’ Trent Gresham vows to be better after having defensive woes in 2025 ‘personally’

CLEARWATER, Fla. – The best offensive season of Trent Grisham’s career was also his worst defensive season.

The end result was Grisham accepting the playoff offer and returning to the Yankees with a chance to prove that not only was his offensive breakthrough not just a fluke, but also that there was more left in the tank defensively because he didn’t appear consistent enough last season due to a hamstring issue.

While Gresham’s biggest impact last season came with the bat, when he hit 34 home runs and handled the day-to-day duties in center field, he did not play up to his track record as a two-time Gold Glover, the last of which will come in 2022.

The 29-year-old usually doesn’t bother looking at defensive metrics — in part because he doesn’t usually have to worry about them when they’re strong — but he admitted Sunday that he likes to know where he stands among midfielders when there’s enough data by midseason.

“And I knew I was at the bottom of that list last year, so I took that personally going into this season,” said Gresham, who ranked fourth among qualifying quarterbacks. “I definitely wanted to get better and get back to what I was like when I was younger.”

The Yankees believe a big part of that is that their health is increasing.

Grisham entered camp last season with a hamstring strain but was able to start the season on time. Then, after returning from the paternity list in late April, he said he had “a little ankle thing I was dealing with.” Then on June 30 in Toronto, Grisham left a game early after getting his cleat stuck on the turf while attempting a run on a soaked liner — “probably another (hamstring) strain,” he said — but he returned to the lineup a few days later and played through it.

“Maybe not quite 100 percent, but it wasn’t really about that,” Gresham said after making a diving catch and going 0-for-2 in a 5-3 win over the Phillies at BayCare Ballpark. “It was about wanting to play there. I felt like I could do very well there.”

The offense didn’t require many hits, as Gresham continued to provide some solid hits, but his defense took a step back — in part because he had trouble getting back down.

“For me, that was the main factor last year, the (physical) limitations,” coach Luis Rojas said. “I think a lot of the balls, especially the straight back, really hurt him, because he had to step back and then hit his hamstrings hard. Those were the balls where he was a little slower than he had been in the past and he couldn’t get to some of the baseballs and that kind of broke his metrics.”

Grisham came to camp this year feeling healthy, and said, according to Rojas, “I’m going to show everyone I’m fast,” perhaps only somewhat half-jokingly.

The Yankees don’t necessarily need Grisham to be as fast as he was earlier in his career — which helped him record 10 DRS in 2022 — but just enough to be able to play the level of defense he’s capable of, commensurate with his strong offensive production.

“I haven’t gone into this season putting too much pressure on the defensive side of the ball,” Grisham said. “It was more mental and putting a chip on my shoulder to get that advantage back. It’s more personal than anything else.”

Of course, if Gresham is looking for chips, he could also find one in questions about whether he can actually repeat his breakout offensive season from 2025. The Yankees clearly believe he can — pointing to strong underlying metrics that suggest he wasn’t a fluke — which is why they made him a $22.025 million qualifying offer.

Grisham said Sunday that it took him the full 12 days allotted to him to decide whether to accept the offer, a decision he described as “heavy.” He might have been able to make more money overall on a multi-year deal had he turned it down, especially since he would have been the second-best quarterback on the free agent market behind teammate Cody Bellinger, but he ultimately opted to return.

“At the end of the day, I want to win baseball games,” Grisham said. “I think that’s how you get the best out of yourself. I want to win. … That was just my priority.”