Cody Bellinger fit the New York Yankees like a glove, and now, the Yankees have to be concerned other teams will view him the same way.
In 152 games for the Yankees, Bellinger had an .813 OPS, 29 home runs, and 5.1 wins above replacement. He’s the clear No. 2 outfielder on the free-agent market after Kyle Tucker, the man who replaced him on the Chicago Cubs, and he’s already made the Yankees look like geniuses for picking him up.
New York will want to hang onto Bellinger if at all possible, though extending the qualifying offer to fellow outfielder Trent Grisham could create complications there. So which teams, if any, are potent threats to the Yankees in his bidding war?
Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors has a curious answer to that question.
In the publication’s yearly free agency predictions article, Franco predicted that Bellinger would sign with the Texas Rangers on a five-year, $140 million deal. The article’s other three writers, Darrah McDonald, Steve Adams, and Tim Dierkes, all predicted that the Yankees would retain Bellinger.
“Bellinger didn’t get the colossal long-term deal he and the Boras Corporation surely sought coming off his original 2023 rebound season with the Cubs, but it was a no-brainer for him to opt out of the final season of his current deal when it was a net $20MM decision,” wrote the four MLBTR contributors.
“Bellinger, who cannot receive a qualifying offer after receiving one earlier in his career, has already banked $77MM since being non-tendered by the Dodgers, and he’s now firmly in position to get the nine-figure deal that eluded him in the 2023-24 offseason.”
Texas already has an expensive lineup, with Corey Seager and Marcus Semien still at the top of the order. But the outfield, outside of third-year man Wyatt Langford, is full of question marks. Two-time All-Star Adolis García looks like a candidate to be traded or even straight-up nontendered, the way Bellinger was before the 2023 season by the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Should the Yankees worry about the Rangers’ ability to outbid them? It doesn’t seem all that likely, given that Texas is right up against the luxury tax threshold, but perhaps Grisham accepting the qualifying offer and the Rangers getting rid of García could change that equation.
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