All roads lead back to Bellinger; this has been my mindset with the Yankees for the last few weeks even though Kyle Tucker is my preference for this team.
Cody Bellinger not signing anywhere else and having a five-year deal on the table that is worth north of $150 million based on the reported AAV of this deal has only made me more confident that he won’t get a better deal elsewhere.
Buster Olney’s reports about the Yankees operating with the assumption that he’ll sign elsewhere felt like a message directed right at Scott Boras; we are no longer playing your game.
For he and Bellinger this could be a disaster; the appetite that the Mets would have to pay Bellinger when they’re squarely in the mix for Kyle Tucker might not be there, and the same is true for the Dodgers and Blue Jays.
With that said, the Yankees’ position is not dissimilar to their top free agent target; they can prop up their alternatives, but the harsh reality is that they need Cody Bellinger back as badly as he needs them in his market.
READ MORE: The Yankees’ interest in Bo Bichette is likely going to disappear as well
Why Cody Bellinger Desperately Needs the Yankees to Remain In
Cody Bellinger is turning 31 next July, and without elite-level bat speed and power, the ballpark he plays in will affect his SLG% for years to come.
This is an important detail in free agency because of the teams who are rumored to be interested, as Yankee Stadium is far more friendly to left-handed pull hitters than places such as Citi Field or Dodger Stadium.
Hitters such as Juan Soto or Shohei Ohtani are not the kinds of hitters who benefit from the short porch but rather batters like Bellinger who don’t have elite-level raw power and hit flyballs that don’t get out in every ballpark.
Smart front offices will bake this into their models when determining how much the player is worth, and both the Mets and Dodgers are organizations that are almost certainly taking this into account.
It’s why I’m confident that the Yankees, who have a five-year offer north of $150 million as their final offer, will end up making the highest bid for the player even if he doesn’t end up signing back.
On the surface you would think that Scott Boras is just being self-centered, ignoring the needs of his client and letting the Yankees walk away to do what they want on the market place.
To the casual fan, Boras just ruined his client’s offseason and has set Cody Bellinger up to sign another short-term deal such as the one we saw him ink with the Cubs after the 2023 season.
There’s just one small issue in all of this; the Yankees do not have an actual pivot they can realistically make right now.
Why the Yankees Desperately Want Cody Bellinger Back
I would like to begin this segment of the article by saying I have no ties to Scott Boras, Cody Bellinger, or Boras Corp; this is not information passed to me by a party who would benefit from it, but rather my own observation.
The Yankees have no serious intention of pursuing either Kyle Tucker or Bo Bichette, despite what Buster Olney of ESPN reported in his article.
Jack Curry of YES Network has stated that a signing of Bichette would be unlikely while also never really providing any sort of optimism at the idea that Kyle Tucker is signing here.
Cody Bellinger is their priority; he is the only big free agent they have ever had any serious interest of signing, and that’s why I ultimately believe they will find themselves calling Boras Corp sooner rather than later.
It seems unrealistic to even consider a world where the team signs Tucker, but I obviously would enjoy this roster more with him on it than Bellinger since he’s the better player.
Bichette on the otherhand is to me the worse stand-alone signing option of the trio since he is likely replacing Jazz Chisholm at second base, not Anthony Volpe at shortstop.
Over the last two seasons we’ve seen Bo Bichette’s injury issues take a serious toll on his game, as he’s slower, less agile, and less impactful on the defensive and baserunning side than he has ever been in his career.
While the offense rebounded beautifully in 2025 after a miserable 2024 season, replacing the third-best player in the lineup last year in WAR (4.2) with a non-superstar won’t have the effect on the roster you’d hope for.
Chisholm is a ~3.5 WAR player in most projection systems while Bichette is a ~4.0 WAR player, that 0.5 improvement in WAR is not close to the improvement you would get going from Jasson Dominguez to Cody Bellinger.
Steven Kwan had his worst sprint speed ever as a big leaguer, Lars Nootbaar is an oft-injured project, and Luis Robert is another oft-injured project player who also comes with a $20 million price tag.
Nico Hoerner would be a fun pivot, but The Athletic is reporting that Chicago would have to overwhelmed in a trade for him, so consider that plan unlikely.
Maybe they could sign Bo Bichette to replace Ryan McMahon and add Austin Hays; that would be an interesting pivot option that could prove fruitful, but who is taking that contract?
It’s all to say that the Yankees need Cody Bellinger back to have their best ‘realistic’ offseason based on the information we have about this winter.