Yankees’ Trent Grisham has gone from clutch to nonexistent

The issue hasn’t been isolated just to Trent Grisham.

But with the Yankees lineup mostly sputtering throughout their ALDS series and even the wild-card series, their clutch hitter from the regular season has been anything but that. 

Grisham will enter a win-or-stay-home Game 3 hitting 3-for-20 in the 2025 playoffs with eight strikeouts.

He also is hitting .165 with 36 strikeouts a .577 OPS through 24 career postseason games.

But Boone defended his center fielder Monday — calling it the “nature of the playoffs” and saying it’s a small sample size. 

“I trust Trent Grisham and his at-bat quality,” Boone said. “It’s just a few games, and we’ve had some tough matchups in there where he’s faced a couple of tough lefties.” 

Boone referenced Grisham’s wild-card series with the Padres against the Mets in 2022 as a glimpse of how he can perform on this stage.

Grisham hit .500 that series and ended up with three homers that postseason, but once the NLCS arrived, he didn’t collect a hit — and has gone 3-for-39 (.077) with 17 strikeouts in 10 postseason games since that Phillies series began. 

Grisham turned 2025 into a career year with the Yankees, collecting personal bests in homers (34), OPS (.811), RBIs (74) and walks (82).

He remained a staple atop their lineup for most of the year after struggling to find consistent playing time as the fourth outfielder in 2024, and Grisham — nicknamed “Big Sleep” by the Yankees — delivered in plenty of key spots and moments, including a grand slam against the Astros in September and a ninth-inning grand slam against the Braves in July. 

But he struck out four times in Game 1 of the wild-card series and three times in Game 2 of the ALDS, with both matchups featuring a dazzling lefty and righty — Garrett Crochet for the Red Sox and Trey Yesavage for the Blue Jays, respectively — for the bulk of the innings.

His lone extra-base hit occurred in the seventh inning of Game 2 against Boston.

With the Yankees’ season on the brink, though, and with Grisham a looming free agent general manager Brian Cashman will need to make a decision on this offseason, Boone’s belief in his center fielder hasn’t wavered. 

“He’s going to not get overwhelmed by a situation,” Boone said. “He’s going to throw a good at-bat on you. He’s going to have the ability every time he walks up there to get on base and the threat of leaving the ballpark.”