As things stand right now, Cody Bellinger and Scott Boras seem more than willng to wait things out and the Yankees should read that and begin a pivot plan.
It doesn’t mean an aggressive pursuit of Bo Bichette or a trade for an outfielder, but it means engaging in talks with teams across the league and making that the primary focus.
The Yankees seem frustrated with Scott Boras’ demands and by leaking their offers it clearly seems that they believe the court of public opinion will side with them over the fan-favorite outfielder.
Despite hitting 29 home runs with a 125 OPS+ and elite defense in the corner outfield, the Yankees do not want to (and shouldn’t want to) pay over $200 million to retain his services, and it’s time they start putting him on the backburner.
READ MORE: The Yankees’ next big bullpen arm throws triple-digit gas
Brian Cashman Needs to Put The Yankees’ Pitching Staff First and Cody Bellinger Second
In speaking to people who had knowledge of the discussions between the Yankees and Marlins, outfielders Spencer Jones and Jasson Dominguez were not holding up an Edward Cabrera trade.
Despite what most of us would have expected in a potential deal for a Miami starter, the pieces that they wanted were Dillon Lewis and Ben Hess, both of whom have more helium inside the industry than they do on the public side.
While people will point to Owen Caissie as a no. 1 caliber prospect in a system, many prospect evaluators such as the ones at Baseball Prospectus viewed him more as a fringe top-100 guy.
After reviewing the Yankees’ system further, my optimism about their ability to make a trade has grown; the initial reports coming out about recently-drafted pitchers such as Mac Heuer might help them in discussions.
The player who I believe could become the Yankees’ ace in the hole is Elmer Rodriguez, a prospect who has become one of the top right-handed pitching prospects in baseball.
When evaluating his MLB readiness, its fair to say he needs some more seasoning in Triple-A, but the fact that he’s all-but-certainly going to make his debut this season will entice teams who are trading a pitcher.
I wouldn’t be stunned if the Brewers coveted Rodriguez in talks about Peralta or the Nationals coveted him in talks about Gore, but if the Yankees don’t want to deal him they could move Carlos Lagrange.
Ben Hess doesn’t have as much helium as those two but he shouldn’t be ignored in these talks; he dominated in Double-A and finished inside the top-10 in FIP and K% among MiLB pitchers (min. 100 IP).
All of this is to say that the Yankees need to jump at the market rather than sitting back and waiting; pulling down a starting pitching trade needs to be their priority as we approach the midway point of January.
The Yankees are not blameless in this; while it is easy to point at Scott Boras’ demands which I consider outrageous, we can’t forget that they could have just pursued Kyle Tucker or signed a different position player bat.
As Bob Klapisch and Jack Curry have both noted, Bellinger is really their main focus in free agency, and they have not done much to indicate there’s anybody else they want.
Scott Boras is doing his job and Cody Bellinger is doing nothing illegal under the current CBA and while I do believe the Yankees have the best offer on the table and its where the former MVP wants to be, he doesn’t have to sign here.
If the organization truly wants everyone to think that they did everything they could and Cody Bellinger’s camp was unreasonable, start focusing on other things.
You aren’t being held hostage by him; you’re choosing to remain squarely focused on bringing him back without much deviation from that plan.