Yankees re-sign Grisham; Berti, Mayza non-tendered

Today at 09:32 PM

The Yankees made some surprising decisions at the non-tender deadline.

There is some activity on the Yankees' active roster, though not of the magnitude that many fans desire for this winter. Friday night marked the deadline for teams to tender contracts to their arbitration-eligible players. This allows teams to make some early savings toward the luxury tax by non-tendering players who are not in their future plans, giving a clearer image in terms of roster composition and payroll space as they address their needs in free agency this winter.

The deadline to make these decisions expired at 8pm ET, with the Yankees re-signing outfielder Trent Grisham and pitcher JT Brubaker but declining to tender a contract to infielder Jon Berti and lefty reliever Tim Mayza.

Offered Contracts

Trent Grisham

About an hour before the deadline, we learned that the Yankees and Trent Grisham had avoided arbitration by agreeing to a one-year, $5 million contract for 2025 that includes up to $250,000 in bonuses based on plate appearances. Assuming he does not reach the plate appearance threshold to trigger the bonus, this deal represents savings worth $700,000 relative to his projected* arbitration number.

Bringing Grisham back into the fold came as a bit of a surprise, with many around the Yankees beat believing he would be non-tendered to clear up even more payroll space for the team's pursuit of Juan Soto. Grisham accompanied Soto to New York in last winter's blockbuster trade with the Padres. He performed well enough in his fourth outfielder role, often used to help give Aaron Judge a day off from playing center. In 209 plate appearances, Grisham slashed .190/.290/.385 with a 91 wRC+ — good for 0.5 fWAR on the season.

A $5 million deal may seem a tad steep for a fourth outfielder, but the Yankees entered today with just three outfielders on the 40-man roster and Grisham is a known commodity. He provides strong defense in center, an above-average walk rate, and decent enough speed. He seemed to show a knack for providing game-changing hits, and impressively nine of his 34 total hits were home runs to go along with an admirable 31 RBIs in just 76 games. Even if Grisham is just on the roster as an insurance policy at the moment, that's far from a worst-case scenario.

JT Brubaker

JT Brubaker didn't throw a single pitch for the Yankees in 2024 — he hasn't pitched since 2022 after undergoing preseason Tommy John surgery in 2023 — but the Yankees saw enough potential in his profile to bring him back for the 2025 season. The Yankees acquired the righty starter from the Pirates for bonus pool money and a PTBNL back in April, and he made eight minor-league rehab appearances at the end of the season.

Brubaker owns a lifetime 4.99 ERA and 4.43 FIP in 61 starts, but it never hurts to stock the pitching room with guys who have major-league starting experience. There's also always the chance that the Yankees can unlock something with him à la Luke Weaver and turn Brubaker into a bullpen weapon.

Non-tendered

Jon Berti

Right at the deadline, word filtered down that the Yankees were declining to tender a contract to infielder Jon Berti.

This one also came as a bit of a surprise given Berti was only projected to earn $3.8 million in his third and final year of arbitration eligibility. The Yankees loved his positional versatility, particularly his ability to play shortstop, where the team is now thin behind Anthony Volpe following Berti's departure. He also possessed elite speed, placing in the 91st percentile in sprint speed.

However, Berti turns 35 in two months and the speed and range will only last so long. Perhaps the pair of soft-tissue injuries he suffered in 2024 — the latter costing him all of June, July, and August — were indicative of the start of a steep physical decline. What's more, despite providing value with the glove and legs, Berti finished the season below-league-average with the bat, placing in the seventh percentile or worse in average exit velocity and barrel rate. Perhaps the Yankees felt it was time to give their young players and prospects — Oswaldo Cabrera, Caleb Durbin, Jorbit Vivas, and Oswald Peraza included — a chance as infield utlilitymen if not starters, allowing them to save almost $4 million in the process.

Tim Mayza

In less surprising news, we learned that the Yankees are also non-tendering Tim Mayza. The left-handed reliever joined the Yankees on July 10, 2024 initially on a minor league contract following his DFA and release by the Blue Jays. He made 15 appearances for the Bombers in the regular season, pitching to a 4.00 ERA and 3.94 FIP across 18 innings and pitched 2.1 scoreless innings across three relief appearances in the postseason.

Mayza'sis departure leaves the Yankees with just one lefty in the bullpen, but at almost 33 years old and with a $4 million projected arbitration number, this was a no-brainer to save a little payroll space given the team's ability to develop inexpensive impact relievers.

*Note: Projected arbitration salaries sourced from MLB Trade Rumors