Out of 13 players who received the qualifying offer this winter, four chose to accept. There were two hitters in that group: Trent Grisham and Gleyber Torres. Grisham was coming off a career-best year with the Yankees, in which he hit 34 home runs and tallied a 129 wRC+ even as his defense regressed. Meanwhile, Torres posted a 113 wRC+ for the Tigers in 2025 and earned his third career All-Star nomination, rebounding nicely from an underwhelming final year in New York. In the end, both opted to remain with their clubs, locking in a $22.025MM salary for 2026 and setting themselves up for a return trip to free agency after the season.
Today, we’ll take a look at how Grisham and Torres have performed in 2026 and whether they will live up to their qualifying offers.
Yankees: Trent Grisham
Grisham was a below-average hitter from 2022-24, as he struggled to make enough contact or take advantage of his power. He continued to provide value as a center fielder, earning 11 Defensive Runs Saved and 22 Outs Above Average in that three-year span. That made Grisham’s performance in 2025 all the more surprising. For the first time in a full season, he was a well above average hitter, while his defense regressed from being an asset to a liability (-11 DRS and -2 OAA). There were reasons to believe Grisham’s offense could stick. Behind the surface-level numbers, he posted career-highs in average exit velocity (91.1 MPH) and hard-hit rate (46.4%), in addition to cutting back slightly on strikeouts. If he could repeat as an above-average hitter, he would be a top center fielder in the game, even if his defense didn’t fully recover.
The early returns in 2026 have been underwhelming. Grisham’s .155/.297/.320 line through 118 plate appearances amounts to just a 79 wRC+ He is walking more and striking out less than 20% of the time, but his contact and power are lagging behind last year’s numbers. The Yankees aren’t sounding the alarm, though. As ugly as that batting average is, Grisham also been incredibly unlucky. He is batting just .151 on balls in play, which is more than 100 points below his career .259 mark. His expected batting average (.220) and expected slugging (.430) are also significantly higher than his actual numbers, so it’s likely that Grisham will improve as he gets more reps.
Beyond his output, the Yankees are also happy just to have continuity in their outfield. Jasson Dominguez was merely fine at the plate last year, though his defense remains a question mark long-term. He started this year in the minors and only returned for a few games before landing on the injured list. Otherwise, the trio of Cody Bellinger, Grisham, and Aaron Judge was one of the league’s best outfield trios last year, so it made sense to run it back. The club is hoping for more out of Grisham this year than what he’s provided so far, but the underlying metrics point to at least average offense as the season goes on. All things considered, the 2026 version of Grisham might be a solid center fielder, if not the force he was last year.
Tigers: Gleyber Torres
Torres improved his strikeout and walk rates from 2024 to 2025, while his power remained roughly the same. The incremental improvements brought his wRC+ from 105 to 113, making Torres one of the better hitting second basemen in the Majors. Defensively, Torres’ -4 DRS and -4 OAA at second base were in line with expectations, as he’s always been a below-average fielder. His defense will be a larger concern as he ages, but on a one-year, $15MM prove-it deal, the Tigers could afford it given Torres’ value on offense.
The jump from $15MM to $22.025MM wasn’t as drastic as Grisham’s salary increase (+$17.025MM) for the Yankees. From that lens, Torres was better positioned to provide value for the Tigers if he simply repeated last year’s output. So far in 2026, he has been slightly above average, but a step down from his 2025 numbers. To his credit, Torres is walking at a 17.6% clip and only striking out 15.5% of the time. However, that’s been undone by a drop in power. His isolated slugging is sitting at .070, a steep decline from last year’s mark of .132. Torres gets on base at a .380 clip, which mitigates the power drop somewhat, but he also doesn’t make enough contact to fully overcome it.
This performance isn’t entirely unexpected when viewed in context with Torres’ second-half numbers from 2025. After hitting over 40% better than average in May and June, he was roughly average in July (102 wRC+), then below average in August (94 wRC+) and September/October (82 wRC+). Torres was playing through pain and underwent surgery for a sports hernia in October, which partly explains the second-half decline. His average exit velocity is down to just 83.3 MPH in 2026, so it’s possible Torres is still dealing with the effects of a disrupted offseason and will need longer to get going. For now, he is getting on base enough to remain above average, and the club will bank on a full return to form the further away he gets from the surgery.
Photo courtesy of Vincent Carchietta, Imagn Images
