Last season Trent Grisham was underutilized by the Yankees, who had a floundering left fielder in Alex Verdugo yet never swapped him out of the lineup to shake things up. It’s not fair to deduce that they would have won the World Series with Grisham starting, but the team may have missed out on an opportunity to run out a deeper offense in their most important games because they never truly let these two veterans battle it out for starting reps. Entering his age-28 season, Trent Grisham is far from an old player, having success as a centerfielder with the Padres from 2020-2021.
In just seven games, Grisham is already 33% of the way there to matching last year’s home run total after smashing his second and third home runs of the season yesterday. Delivering some big hits early, the Yankees might have struck gold with the lefty-swinging outfielder, who can bring power and defense to the lineup against tough left-handers.
Trent Grisham’s Hot Start With Yankees Stems From 2024 Adjustments
Trent Grisham has quietly been making some key adjustments since throwing on the pinstripes, as after a dreary start with the team he began messing around with his stance. The Yankees have been getting tons of attention for their bat-fitting, but not enough has gone towards how comfortable hitters on the roster are making in-season adjustments. Jazz Chisholm changed his positioning to stand deeper in the box after being traded to New York, Aaron Judge closed off his stance after a bad April, and Austin Wells ditched a leg kick that was causing him to be late on heaters in the zone.
In the case of Grisham, he opened up his stance more and more as the season went on, and in doing so he seemed to have unlocked something that’s fueled something of a home run hot streak. At the start of the 2024 season his stance was closed off by two degrees, but fast-forward a year later, and his stance is 21 degrees open, and the side-by-side is quite incredible.
The big change in stance comes from May to June, where Trent Grisham opens up his stance by eight degrees and has his best month with the team up to that point. He kept that stance open even when he eventually cooled off, resulting in another hot streak with the two-homer game being the latest strong showing in his recent tear.
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Trent Grisham has been a much better hitter since opening up his stance, as since last June he’s slashing .255/.343/.522 with a 141 wRC+ and 11 home runs in 62 games. The Yankees are getting Grisham to pull the ball to right field more often, last season he registered his highest Pull Air% (20%), and this year that number is up to 23.1%. It’s why he’s hit 12 home runs in just 230 plate appearances with the Bronx Bombers, a pace that would result in 31 round-trippers if he held that up over 600 trips to the plate.
A more open stance can give Trent Grisham some more momentum to right field, putting him in a position to launch the ball and do damage when he gets a pitch to handle. He doesn’t only hit his home runs to right field, but it’s where he’s going to have the most consistent game power based on how the ball flight and home ballpark dimensions. Few hitters barrel the ball as much as Grisham does, and if he gets a good swing off to right field with his high flyball rate he’ll likely end up with a dinger.
Fully buying into his hot start would be irresponsible, but his power surge is a product of mid-season adjustments from last year. He was an above-average hitter from June onward, posting a 115 wRC+ and .457 SLG% as a part-time player, what we’re seeing in 2025 is a continuation of those adjustments. He’s not a superstar nor will that 141 wRC+ since opening his stance hold, but if these adjustments stick the way they have over his last 182 plate appearances, we could be looking at a pretty good weapon for this offense to have, especially against lefties.
Despite being a left-handed hitter, Trent Grisham owns a 111 wRC+ and .756 OPS against southpaws, hitting 20 home runs in 572 plate appearances. The Yankees have needed someone to step up and become a short-side platoon option for them, and Grisham could be just that for this team. His strong glove in centerfield would allow them to run out lineups where Aaron Judge or Jasson Dominguez DH while Cody Bellinger moves to the corner outfield. This gives the Yankees an elite defensive outfield still while keeping their offense afloat until Giancarlo Stanton returns to the team.
It also gives the Yankees some more speed and dynamic baserunning opportunities, as while they haven’t been great on the bases early on, those have mostly come on steal attempts. They’ll improve in that regard, Anthony Volpe is 0-2 on steal attempts to start the season and I don’t expect that number to hold up at all. When this offense begins to struggle (which is inevitable, no one can stay this hot forever), they can lean on things like speed and defense to win them ballgames.
Trent Grisham’s adjustments from last year have carried into a fast start in 2025, and the Yankees could have a counterpunch for teams expecting to hold them down with a flurry of left-handed pitchers.