Outfield Grades: These Guys Drove the Offense

The Yankees got an MVP season from Aaron Judge, a crazy surprising one from Trent Grisham, and if that was Cody Bellinger’s only year in pinstripes, it was certainly enjoyable. Lets get to it.

A quick explainer of two key stats:

You know the basic offensive stats below, but the two at the end of the stat line are FRV (fielding run value), and WAR (wins above replacement).

➤ Fielding run value is the most comprehensive metric to measure defensive value because it incorporates range, throwing, and then for catchers specifically it melds together blocking, throwing and framing. I think defensive metrics are very subjective - they aren’t black and white like HRs, RBIs, etc. They use StatCast measuring on every play to determine what should have happened and what ultimately happened so you have to take it with a grain of salt, but it’s about as close as we can get to actually understanding how players are performing on defense.

➤ WAR is a holistic metric that measures a player’s value in all facets of the game by deciphering how many more wins he’s worth than a replacement-level player at his same position such as a minor league replacement or a readily available fill-in free agent. For example, if a shortstop and a first baseman offer the same overall production (on offense, defense and the basepaths), the shortstop will have a better WAR because his position sees a lower level of production from replacement-level players.

WAR estimates the total number of runs a player contributes to their team and converts that into a total number of wins. For example, a player with a WAR of 5.0 is estimated to be worth five more wins than a replacement-level player. For the Yankees, Aaron Judge led all of MLB with a 9.7 WAR, obviously superstar level. Meanwhile, Austin Wells was a 0.0, so he was essentially as average as a player can be.

RF Aaron Judge: A+

He had a season for the ages, and then he capped it off by being the Yankees’ best hitter in the postseason, something that had been a problem for him in the past as his October struggles have been exhaustingly analyzed. Judge is the best hitter in MLB, there’s just no denying it. Shohei Ohtani is the best overall player because he hits and pitches, and does both incredibly well, but Ohtani is not the hitter that Judge is, and no one else is, either.

He led MLB in WAR, average, on-base, slugging, and OPS, and led the AL in runs scored and total bases. He did all that while also getting intentionally walked an MLB-high 36 times, and walked unintentionally another 88 times. He became just the third player in history to win a batting title while also hitting at least 50 home runs. All while playing a solid right field. There’s really not much more I even need to say. We over-use this term, but he really is a generational player.

CF Trent Grisham: B+

Grisham put forth a rather stunning season because literally out of nowhere he hit 34 home runs, doubling his previous high of 17 set in 2022 with the Padres. He also set career highs in OPS and on-base percentage, and he did it while making only $5 million which is some serious bang for the buck. Unfortunately, in 2026 he’s going to be accounting for $22 million in payroll because the Yankees stupidly gave him the qualifying offer, and he smartly took it. He’s going to make more next year than he had in his first six seasons combined.

For the life of me, I don’t know why the Yankees did this. I’ll assume they gambled and were hoping he wouldn’t accept the QO in the belief that he could get a multi-year free agent deal somewhere else. Well, if it was a bluff, Grisham called the Yankees on it. There’s almost no way he’s going to hit the way he did in 2025, and his defense took a slide back and he was an average fielder at best, at a premium position where you want better than average. These are the kinds of decisions that prevent the Yankees from going the distance.

LF Cody Bellinger: A-

We’ll see if he comes back to New York now that he is a free agent again. It’s going to be costly, and having just pissed away $22 million on Grisham didn’t help. I would guess the Yankees will make a push to sign Kyle Tucker, but that’s going to cost a whole lot more than Bellinger, perhaps as much as $350 or $400 million, whereas Bellinger is pegged in the $150 to $200 million range. Tucker is clearly the better hitter, but I think Bellinger is the better defender.

What I loved about Bellinger is that his strikeout rate was a career-low 13.7% which was nice on a team that still has too much swing and miss. He also hit the ball hard, though I wish his pull percentage (35.9) was a little higher at Yankee Stadium. All 18 of his home runs in the Bronx went to right or right-center, but if he had pulled the more frequently, he might have hit 25 or more homers at home.

LF Jasson Dominguez: C

He began the season as the full-time left-fielder and as the year wore on, he became a platoon player and ultimately, wasn’t even being used as the Yankees went strictly with Bellinger in left and Grisham in center. It felt like a wasted year and it seems like the Yankees don’t trust him to become an every-day regular because his defense is so terrible, and he’s a lousy right-handed batter.

Against righties he hit .274 with nine homers and a .768 OPS but against lefties he hit .204 with one homer and a .569 OPS. At some point, I think the best thing he could do is give up on switch-hitting, spend the offseason hitting mainly against lefties to get used to not having a platoon advantage because as you can see, he doesn’t have an advantage. As for the defense, he can only go up, right, because the talent is there to become a better fielder. It’s too bad he doesn’t play more because he’s a weapon on the bases as his 23 stolen bases prove, but also how effortlessly he can go from first to third and second to home. The station-to-station Yankees need more guys like that.

OF-DH Giancarlo Stanton: B

Stanton missed the first 2 ½ months with his latest injury and he wound up playing just 77 games which was his fewest since 2019, not counting the 2020 Covid year. When he was in there, he was really good as he popped 24 homers for an home run percentage of 8.5, his highest since 2017, his last year with the Marlins when he won the MVP and hit 59 homers. His OPS was also his highest since that season when it was 1.007.

Just as impressive was his willingness to play in the field when Judge was dealing with his elbow injury and couldn’t throw. He played 20 games and held up well, making just one error. Was he great? No, but he filled in capably during a crisis because the Yankees could not afford to lose his bat with Judge DH’ing. Stanton’s 34.2% strikeout rate was the worst of his career, though, and unlike past postseasons when he rose to the occasion, he stunk in October.