The Yankees got their first big offseason answer this Tuesday. Trent Grisham has made his decision. He’s keeping in his pinstripes and is ready to accept a qualifying offer, a one-year contract valued at $22.025 million. Brian Cashman offered him the qualifying offer, assuming he’d turn it down and look for a bigger contract elsewhere. It would’ve given the Yankees draft compensation in return. However, that didn’t happen. Now, a frustrated Yankees veteran is openly pushing back against Hal Steinbrenner over Brian Cashman’s move.

Former Yankees outfielder Clint Frazier, who frequently criticizes the team’s decisions, believes that Cashman is “sleeping” through the club’s championship window.

“I think one thing that frustrates me, frustrates fans, and frustrates people is that the Yankees do have all of this money, but do they allocate that money towards players that make a lot of sense? If you look at the Dodgers, I mean, they have superstars all around. And obviously the Yankees can go out, and they can spend the money how they want, but I think you should spend the money on the superstars instead of just giving these guys money that maybe don’t deserve that much money. And it’s just to fill a spot, but that’s just me. Spend your money wisely, obviously,” he said.

Further, he added, “Spend it on guys that make sense, but put together a team that represents 306 million dollars on the payroll, and let’s go out there and ride.” Frazier raised an intriguing question as well. He’s not sure whether Trent Grisham’s return means it closes the door on players like Cody Bellinger or Kyle Tucker.

Even though Grisham put up a career year in 2025 with 34 homers, most Yankees fans had already assumed he’d be on his way out. That would have freed up room for big-name free agents or given top prospect Spencer Jones a real shot in 2026. As he’s sticking around, Grisham will be right back in center field in 2026, with Aaron Judge holding things down in right.

It might take Yankees faithful a while to shake off the confusion surrounding Cashman’s decision on Grisham.

Meanwhile, as Frazier sees it, the Yankees were already sitting at around $304–306 million last year. That is above the $300 million luxury tax threshold, meaning they paid a tax on every dollar spent past that point. He drew a comparison to Dodgers, insisting that they didn’t seem to care about the tax at all.

According to him, the Yankees might need to take a similar approach. At some point, they just have to stop worrying about the cap.

Yankees’ payroll situation post their $22 million Trent Grisham commitment

Every offseason starts with one key number. For the Yankees, that number is $300 million. It’s the luxury tax threshold Hal Steinbrenner treats like it’s electrified. He’ll go past it, but only if the roster justifies it for good.

That’s where things get tricky.

The Yankees began the winter with about $70 million to work with. And guess what? Now, they’re already creeping much closer to that limit than they originally planned. The Trent Grisham qualifying offer apparently flipped the Yankees’ entire offseason on its head. One decision, and suddenly nearly a third of their financial flexibility was gone.

Before Grisham accepted the $22 million QO, the Yankees had a much more open path. The plan was to bring back Cody Bellinger, add a high-leverage reliever, and stay in the hunt for a frontline starter like Japanese righty Tatsuya Imai. Those were their priorities. They genuinely thought they could check all those boxes.

Now, the math is much trickier. With $259.3 million already projected for 2026, the Yankees have roughly $40 million before hitting Hal Steinbrenner’s unofficial spending limit. And that’s simply not enough to cover Bellinger, a quality reliever, and a starting pitcher, not without blowing past the threshold Hal hates crossing.

So the Yankees are in a familiar bind. They want to operate like the big-market powerhouse they are. However, they feel boxed in by their own financial restraint.