Aaron Judge Has Strong Message for Yankees Surprise Star

Amidst a season full of standout performances, Trent Grisham stands out as perhaps the biggest surprise for the New York Yankees thus far.

The 28-year-old, typically known for his stellar defense in center field, has played his way into an everyday role by developing into one of MLB's top hitters with a .283/.367/.628 slash line to go alongside a whopping 12 home runs, which ranks third in the American League behind teammate Aaron Judge and Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh.

Speaking of Judge, he believes Grisham is on track to earn himself a spot in the Midsummer Classic come July.

“I feel like that’s a guy that should be in an All-Star Game, especially with the season he’s putting up,” Judge said, via the New York Post. “I think he’s a big reason for the success we’ve had.”

Grisham began his career with the Milwaukee Brewers and made his major league debut in 2019. After committing a crucial error against the Washington Nationals on a Juan Soto single in the eighth inning of the NL Wild Card Game that year, he was traded to the San Diego Padres with Zach Davies for Luis Urías and Eric Lauer.

Over parts of four years with the Padres, Grisham hit a paltry .214/.315/.381 while logging 55 home runs, 45 stolen bases and 31 Outs Above Average, winning two Gold Gloves along the way.

San Diego later dealt both him and Soto to the Yankees in December 2023. Grisham took a back seat last year, recording a .675 OPS in just 209 regular season plate appearances, but he's taken his golden opportunity this time around and ran with it.

While his impressive numbers have come over a small sample size, they aren't the least bit fluky. According to Baseball Savant, Grisham currently ranks in the 98th percentile for both expected slugging percentage (.626) and chase rate (16.9%), 95th percentile for xwOBA (.419) and 94th percentile for barrel rate (17.2%).

Judge added that it was only a matter of time before Grisham turned in a campaign like this given both his talent and work ethic.

“I think you give a guy like that—he puts in the work every single day, a Gold Glove defender—give him 500 at-bats, let him go out there and do his things for a whole season and see what happens, good things are going to happen,” Judge said.

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