Trent Grisham Makes Free Agency Decision on Tuesday

"Trent Grisham is accepting the Yankees' qualifying offer, a source tells ESPN," he reported.

Qualifying offers are the mean salary of MLB's 125 highest-paid players in a given year, per MLB.com. The 2026 qualifying offer is $22.05 million for one year.

Each team is allowed to extend a qualifying offer to one player each offseason and receive a compensatory draft pick if they decline and sign with another team. In this case, New York will get Grisham back for a year instead of a pick.

Yankees Still Pursuing Cody Bellinger

Bringing back Grisham is only the start of New York's offseason journey. The club is still prioritizing fellow outfielder Cody Bellinger, who's an unrestricted free agent after spending 2025 in the Bronx, per The New York Post's Jon Heyman.

The Yankees acquired Bellinger from the Chicago Cubs last offseason, and he slashed .272/.334/.480 with 29 homers and 98 RBIs over 152 games. The 30-year-old finished second on the team in hits (160), RBIs, total bases (282), and WAR (five).

It will take a larger financial commitment to bring Bellinger back than Grisham's qualifying offer. The former NL MVP has a market value of six years, $182.6 million ($30.4 million average annual salary), per Spotrac. That's likely why he declined his $25 million player option for 2026.

If New York does retain Bellinger, it will once again have an outfield group of him, Judge, Grisham, and 22-year-old Jasson Dominguez. It also has prospect Spencer Jones, who slashed .274/.362/.571 with 35 homers and 80 RBIs over 116 games across Double-A and Triple-A this past season.

Meanwhile, Dominguez is slashing .248/.327/.397 with 16 homers and 58 RBIs over 149 career big-league games.