The New York Yankees pivoted relatively effectively after losing Juan Soto in free agency last winter, and a huge amount of the credit goes to outfielder Cody Bellinger.
After two All-Star appearances and a Most Valuable Player Award last decade with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Bellinger had been on a roller coaster early in the 2020s. But he was a perfect fit with the Yankees, who only had to take on $22 million of his $27 million salary and throw in a no-name pitcher to acquire him from the Chicago Cubs.
Now that Bellinger is getting set to hit the open market for the third time in his career, though, the Yankees could face some stiff competition to bring him back.
On Tuesday, Jon Heyman of the New York Post provided an update on Bellinger’s impending free agency that reasonable fans could view as either glass-half-full or glass-half-empty.
“The Yankees are prioritizing Cody Bellinger, and while word is he’d like to return, there’s no sense it will go quickly,” Heyman wrote.
“Could the Dodgers bring Bellinger back? He’d fit since their outfield is the least of their strengths, and some Dodgers folks like him. He’s turned it back around since the couple of years of offensive struggles following his MVP season in L.A.”
On the plus side, the idea that Bellinger wants to return to the Bronx has to be encouraging, because as the Yankees saw with Soto, having a great one-year cameo in the Bronx doesn’t necessarily equate to a sentimental pull for a return in free agency.
But hearing the words “Dodgers folks like him” in relation to a free agent is often Code Red for a team that wants to secure a player these days. And there’s a gaping hole in right field in Los Angeles that Bellinger could easily fill, potentially for a significantly lower price than Kyle Tucker, the prize of this year’s class.
If Bellinger’s free agency takes a while to play out, Yankees fans have to hope he feels better about a return to the Bronx than a Dodgers reunion, considering the fact that the last two years were a bit of a mess for the star in LA.
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