The Yankees outfield defense was, to be blunt, not very good over the course of 2024. Running out a trio of corner outfielders in Alex Verdugo, Aaron Judge, and Juan Soto, they finished the season with a combined -5 Defensive Runs Saved (15th in the league) and -12 Outs Above Average (25th). Even with DRS absolutely adoring Verdugo’s performance in left — his 8 DRS made him a top-15 outfielder in baseball — the metrics agreed: outfield defense was a weakness for the Yankees.
Not surprisingly, the Yankees tried in the offseason to strengthen their defense. With the departure of the defensibly challenged Soto, they shifted Judge back to right field, where he has been a borderline Gold Glove defender throughout his career. Replacing Judge and his -9 DRS and -6 OAA in center was Cody Bellinger, a versatile defender capable of playing a solid center and elite defense on the corner. Tack on another year of Jasson Domínguez learning left field and a concerted effort to get Trent Grisham more playing time, and the 2025 outfield was certainly going to do a better job with their gloves than their 2024 counterparts.
The eye test has for the most part agreed with this narrative. A little over 40 games into the season, however, and that’s not the story the defensive metrics are telling. Heading into action last night, the Yankees outfield was worth -5 DRS (22nd) and -2 OAA (17th). Bellinger and Judge have been as advertised, with the former accruing 1 DRS and 3 OAA across all three outfield positions and the latter 1 DRS and 1 OAA in right. Meanwhile, Domínguez (-3 DRS, -5 OAA) and Grisham (-5 DRS, -1 OAA) have been absolute butchers — at least, according to the metrics.
El Marciano’s struggles in left field have been well documented, and at this point don’t really warrant repeating. That Grisham finds himself struggling with the glove, on the other hand, ought to turn some heads. When the Yankees acquired him alongside another outfielder in the deal that sent Michael King, Kyle Higashioka, and a gaggle of Quadruple-A arms to the Padres two winters ago, he had a reputation as a glove-first center fielder who was shaky at the plate. As his bat has broken out at the start of 2025, however, his glove appears to have declined.
So what has been behind this sudden drop in performance? In truth, it’s too early to say it’s anything more than just the oddities of a small sample size — Judge and Soto, after all, had solid numbers in center and right last May before ultimately finishing the year with below-average metrics. At this stage of the season, just a couple of misplayed balls can have an outsized effect on the data. That being said, there is one alarming trend that needs to be watched: Grisham’s jump. From 2019 to 2024, he averaged between 34.8 and 36.8 feet covered every season, which placed him somewhere in the league’s top 20 outfielders. This year, however, he has been averaging just 32.9 feet — tied for 69th with Hunter Renfroe and Jordan Beck, and 1.5 feet below the average for his position.
Given Grisham’s track record and his age — not only do players very rarely start to lose a step in their age-28 season, he has actually seen his foot speed increase from 26.9 to 27.1 so far this season — my expectation is that he will be fine, and by the end of the season, his numbers will be more in line with his career norms. Still, as we go forward, and the calendar prepares to shift from May to June, Grisham’s defense is worth keeping an eye on.