If you told anyone that in the first week of May, Trent Grisham would have a wRC+ over 50 points higher than that of Juan Soto, and that he’d already match his 2024 home run total, it would have been a hard sell. And yet, though overshadowed by Aaron Judge’s perpetual world-crushing, Grisham has been a revelation thus far for the Yankees, and he may very well continue to play an integral role in their lineup as 2025 rolls along.
Although Grisham was not the “replacement” for Soto (he did get traded to the New York with him), he has somehow almost perfectly filled his shoes through the first month and change of the season. He has been a good hitter at stages in his seven-year big league career, but never this good. Through 29 games and 95 plate appearances at the time of writing, Grisham has an MVP-level 187 wRC+, is slashing .289/.379/.631, and has already poked nine home runs, matching his 76-game total from last season.
The 28-year-old Grisham looks like a new man, and he’s easily earned himself a regular spot in the Yankees’ lineup as things stand. He may have come into the 2025 season with a more aggressive mindset at the plate, and the dividends have been resounding.
Thus far, Grisham is swinging at one of the higher rates of his career, with his 41.4 percent swing rate standing as a fair increase from last year’s mark. This aggression is even more notable early in counts, as he’s taking a hack at the first pitch of his at-bats 27.4 percent of the time, a career-high mark, and over 10 percentage points higher than his rate last season. Though he’s being pitched more conservatively than ever, seeing the least fastballs he ever has in his career, Grisham is picking the right battles, and clearly it is paying off big time.
When a batter leans toward a more aggressive approach, there’s usually some kind of trade off in terms of discipline, but that’s far from the case with Grisham so far this year. Despite the attack mentality early in counts, he has maintained a double digit walk rate in 2025, which has always been a strength of the two-time Gold Glover. Even more surprising, Grisham has actually cut down his strikeout rate significantly. His current 18.9 percent K rate would be nearly ten percentage points lower than the mark he’s managed across the least three seasons, and he is making generally good decisions at the plate too. Grisham is managing a whiff rate in the 87th percentile, and a chase rate in the 94th. He wants to hit, but he’s still picking the optimal spots and making contact with the very best of ‘em.
The icing on top of all of these nice things, of course, is that Grisham is crushing the ball. He is currently posting career bests in hard hit rate, barrel rate, exit velocity, and a bevy of expected stats. Throw all of this together, and Grisham suddenly has a top-five wRC+ in all of baseball.
Although this is all coming from less than 100 plate appearances, it’s good to see that his eye-popping numbers are backed up by some promising behind the scenes figures as well. I’m not betting on him continuing at this rate, or really outpacing Soto, but I do think he’s fully capable of being a good major league hitter, something he has at least done before.
His approach at the plate may change as the season progresses, as may pitchers’ to him, but for now, he has been indispensable for the Yankees. With Cody Bellinger’s sub-par offense to this point, and the continuing absence of Giancarlo Stanton, the Yankees will take anything they can get from supporting players, and Grisham is giving them a heck of a lot. With this hot start and his high floor as a defensive star, Grisham has almost already locked himself in as a plus player for the Yankees this season.