\u201cLike anything else, there are certain salary levels that we\u2019ll tag out at,\u201d Cashman said Thursday night at the Covenant House Sleep Out at Javits Center, where he was taking part for the 14th time to raise funds and awareness for youth homelessness.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s yet to be determined. But we\u2019ve driven hard to get things done at times. We\u2019ve driven hard and still not gotten things done because the markets \u2014 whether it was the Yamamoto one or the Soto one \u2014 they go on and on and on and places you never expected. So you just don\u2019t know how free agency\u2019s going to work. So that\u2019s why it\u2019s so important for me to do what I\u2019m always doing \u2014 what all GMs are doing \u2014 which is engaging your fellow GMs and the agents.\u201d<\/p>\n
As an example, Cashman said he spoke with agent Casey Close on Thursday about the top free agent outfielder, Kyle Tucker, along with his other clients like first baseman Paul Goldschmidt and right-hander Michael King. <\/p>\n
And he spoke with Scott Boras on Wednesday about Bellinger and Japanese right-hander Tatsuya Imai.<\/p>\n
Grisham returning at a much higher average annual value (compared to his $5 million salary this year) brought the Yankees\u2019 projected 2026 luxury tax payroll to $281 million, per Cot\u2019s Contracts, at a time when Hal Steinbrenner has said that having a $300 million payroll is \u201cunsustainable.\u201d <\/p>\n
![\"Yankees](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Brian-Cashman.jpg\")
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman talks to the media during the Covenant House Sleep Out event at the Jacob Javits Center in New York on Nov. 20, 2025. Jason Szenes \/ New York Post<\/p>\n
But Cashman insisted he still has the financial flexibility to do what he needs to do this offseason.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not going to tip our hands on going hard for anybody, [but] Bellinger is an obvious one,\u201d he said. \u201cWe can play a little bit and not be silly about not saying that. But other than that, I\u2019m not going to say who we will lean more in on or not. But certainly engaging all these players in the marketplace and trying to find out what the cost of acquisition is and see how it would fit for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for Grisham accepting the qualifying offer Tuesday \u2014 which came as somewhat of a surprise externally \u2014 Cashman said he was \u201c50-50\u201d on whether it would happen. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
He viewed Grisham as the \u201cthird-best outfielder\u201d in a thin outfield market but acknowledged the center fielder likely would have had to wait for Tucker and Bellinger to sign first, which came with some \u201cgamble.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re happy he accepted because it\u2019s one important piece taken care of,\u201d Cashman said. \u201cHe gives us some comfort and security. So we have [Aaron] Judge, we have Grisham, and I\u2019ve got the pairing of a competition between [Jasson] Dom\u00ednguez and Spencer Jones, at the very least. But I also have the marketplace that has Bellinger in it, Tucker in it, others in it, trade stuff to consider, too. So we\u2019ll see where all that takes us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Yankees bringing back Grisham at a high AAV is something of a gamble, as well, given that his breakout season in 2025 came after three straight below-average offensive seasons. <\/p>\n
![\"Yankees](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Brian-Cashman-2.jpg\")
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman is seen in his sleeping bag during the Covenant House Sleep Out event at the Jacob Javits Center. Jason Szenes \/ New York Post<\/p>\n
But Cashman said the Yankees believe what the 29-year-old did this year \u2014 34 home runs with an .811 OPS \u2014 is sustainable.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the underlying information that leads you to believe \u2014 real or not real, it points to the real arrow,\u201d Cashman said. \u201cAll the support information backs up that the changes he made are real and it should continue. \u2026 And the fact that he did it here. It would be a little riskier if that happened somewhere else and we imported him because then you don\u2019t know the New York factor and can they do it here with the pressure?<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGo beyond the box score with the Bombers\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Yankees by Greg Joyce, exclusively on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cHe did it all [here], and he was doing it home and road, too, so it wasn\u2019t the Yankee Stadium effect or what have you. He answered a lot of questions. It came unexpected, [but] thankful it did.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brian Cashman said it before Trent Grisham accepted the qualifying offer, and he doubled down on it two…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":393904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[48428,10624,5605,1266,71333,2228,62,52282,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-393903","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-brian-cashman","9":"tag-cody-bellinger","10":"tag-kyle-tucker","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-mlb-free-agency","13":"tag-new-york-yankees","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-trent-grisham","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115585973855354638","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}