February 10, 2026

135 thoughts on “Yankees.com: Bellinger agrees to 5-year deal to return to Yankees (source)”

    1. If it gets crazy, what are the odds of him not okaying a trade? I don’t mind a no-trade clause for that very reason, especially as he’d get one no matter what at year four.

  5. Doubt Belli will have use for those opt-outs after the salary cap is in place.
    But at least while Stanton is on the team, that should at least keep him motivated.

  7. IMO, it’s still an overpay and it was evident based on the market looking elsewhere, but – also – after Bichette and Tucker signed, I figured that the Yankees would sign Bellinger to an even worst contract.

  8. Here’s a video that attempts to quantify how “toolsy” a player is. Not sure I agree with the specific metrics they chose (particularly ranking-based rather than ratio-based / normalized), but I do like the spirit of combining statcast/peripherals with results-based stats. Apropos of today’s signing, it eventually makes an argument that Bellinger is a better all-around player than I was thinking – 9th out of 144 qualified by this guy’s metric – and is the most well rounded position player on the Yankees. (I suspect that if Judge’s arm were full strength, he might be up there too.)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_G6QMWGsmYY

    1. I think there’s also some interesting points in the comments on that video, for instance that Plate Discipline could be considered another, independent tool…

    2. How can players in the top 10 of one contact metric be in the bottom 10 in the other? Clearly very different things are being measured.

    3. Good question, Pete. I think Judge can maintain a high batting average because his BABIP is sustainably above league average (due to his high exit velocity), and his strikeout rate has dropped since he came up. Now, if his in-strike-zone contact % were better, that could further decrease his strikeout rate, but it’s not clear that he could make that adjustment while still hitting the ball as hard as he does.

      In other words, what seems like Judge’s “contact hitting” is a high average that is a fortunate side effect of his power. But he isn’t a “contact hitter” in that, at his best, he still strikes out at a league average rate.

    1. I like the way that piece ends: “Playing cute in the negotiations, trying to save a few bucks, carried meaningful downside risk. Outfitting Judge with a less-than-spectacular supporting cast, while he stacks 10-WAR seasons like firewood, is front office malpractice. The Judge deal has been such a huge win for the Yankees that they should be tripping over themselves to make small overpays to get their preferred supporting cast, and this is a wonderful example of that.”

    3. VJ this is the real underlying issue, the great tragedy of our times. 😉
      And clearly they’ll continue to use Judge as a crutch to pretend they’ve built a real team, rather than actually doing it and giving Judge a WS.
      They might luck into a WS, of course, if one of these days a few playoff opponents in a row underperform.

    1. Volpe, Wells, Dominguez, Jones, Lombard, and cash to Oakland, for Langeliers and/or Wilson.

      Will never happen, of course. But Wilson would be a great leadoff guy, and Langeliers would be a RHB catcher with decent offense, freeing Rice up to play mostly 1B (and occasional backup at C).

    1. Looking to bring back the glory days of the 1990s, Cashman is looking to trade Jones and Dominguez for hair plugs; but he’ll have to throw in Lombard and Schlittler because Hal also wants cash for a new yacht.

    2. Assuming not, let’s see how they’ve improved?

      The let a negative WAR relief pitcher leave, but also lost a decent one (weaver).

      Assuming Bednar is good they’ll have him the whole year.

      Maybe Cabby is better than Volpe, or at least a platoon will be better than every day Volpe.

      Maybe McM at 3b will hit a little better but even if not better than all the time they gave DJLM.

      Their #1 starter last year is starting this year on the IL. But maybe last years surprise rookie Schittler gets more innings and remains really good?

      I have a strong feeling Grisham and belli will both not match last years output. Maybe Jasson improves a bit by not exposing his weak side as much?

      I don’t really see how they are better. Unless the Mexican league MVP is actually good but I bet against that. I still remember Celerino Sanchez.

      Maybe Spencer Jones becomes Judge lite?

      That’s all I got.

    3. I don’t see Jones getting more than a cup of coffee, a la 2016 Judge. Would be tough to go from 30% K rate at AAA to anything viable at MLB. But once it’s August, the team has sold at the trade deadline, and A-Rod Stanton has been forced into retirement, maybe they’ll bring up Jones and TJ Rumfield, who will hit back-to-back pop-ups in their first at bats.

    4. There’s no reason to think they’ve gotten better. They have achieved – and it was dubious – getting worse only by not that much.

    5. I have the sense that there was a burst of enthusiasm for Jones a few months back, which has somewhat subsided. Should have traded him then, at that sweet spot.
      But yes, I agree with VJ – but there is at least some hope that they’re working with him and he’ll have something substantially better than a 30% K rate by the second half of next season.

    6. I mean, what’s “big”? Would Mackenzie Gore be “big”?

      There’s no way they’re done. And it’s kind of funny to be, like, “You signed Belli on Wednesday, how have you not done anything new by Thursday?!”

    7. Brian, I’m not complaining about timing.
      Read it again.
      I’m asking what else is out there, what they could conceivably do that would be actually meaningful, not just details.

    8. And I’m questioning what is “big”? There’s no Freddy Peralta-level guys out there, but there are still interesting guys out there. I just don’t know who qualifies as a “big” move.

    1. I’d love that, seriously.

      Would also like to see a reunion with Greg Bird, as it would free Rice up to catch more, and as the Nick Torres signing shows the Yankees are amenable to players out of the Mexican League who showed promise ten years ago.

    2. Sanchez also looked like he’s actually put work into his catching game during his time in Baltimore. They just have no room for him with an All-Star character and a rookie catcher who’s one of the top prospects in the game. If he’s receptive to actually improving, he might accept the help of Burkhardt this time, and he might get even BETTER.

      A bench of:

      Sanchez
      Rosario
      Dominguez
      Waldo

      Would have some good righthanded AND lefthanded pinch-hitters late.

      That is, unless they send Dominguez to the minors for 2026 and acquire another righthanded outfielder, in which case all of their late-game pinch-hitters would be righthanded hitters (Waldo is a switch-hitter, of course, but he’s better from the right side). Austin Hays could still have a role on this team.

    3. BC is you think they aren’t done then yeah I guess I should hold off. But if they are this has been a putrid off season after season of blah. Of course if they fire Boone that would make this offseason very successful as it would be adding 5-6 wins!

  17. As of right this second, the Yankees almost certainly project as having the most WAR in the American League, and probably third-most overall behind the Dodgers and the Mets.

    It’s not an exciting team, to be sure, but it IS a good team. To recap the improvements by their rivals that apparently should make them concerned:

    The Orioles have added Alonso, Baz, Helsey, Kitteridge (who they traded themselves just last season) and Taylor Ward…but they did so to a shitty team where Baz is, like, their #2 or 3 starter. Their rotation is currently Rogers (outstanding), Bradish, Baz, Kremer, and Tyler Wells. Is anyone really worried about that rotation?

    The Blue Jays have added Cease, Poche, Rogers, and Okamoto, but lost their All-Star shortstop, Bo Bichette. Besides Bichette, who was a huge part of their offense, ANOTHER huge part of their offense last season was 35-year-old George Springer going from a 102 OPS+ in 2023, a 91 OPS+ in 2024 to a 161 OPS+ in 2025. What will 36-year-old George Springer be like in 2026?

    They were a good team last year, and they made some good additions, but the loss of Bichette is huge, so you can’t tell me you think the Blue Jays have greatly improved their team, either.

    The Red Sox have added Ranger Suarez, Sonny Gray, Oviedo, and Willson Contreras, while losing Alex Bregman. Again, is that even much of an improvement? It IS an improvement, but how much of an improvement is it?

    AS IS, this is a good team with a good chance to being the top team in the American League, but yes, I think Cashman plans to still add.

    1. Yes, they’re definitely a good team.
      They’ll have an acceptable regular season, and maybe a really good one.
      I can’t see them going too far in the playoffs. Well, I can imagine it, that’s not true. What I mean is that if I had to bet on a team to make it to the WS, it wouldn’t be them. I would expect them to make the playoffs and lose before the league championship series.
      …
      And, barring a surprise trade, what is out there to add? They might not be done done, but they look to be pretty much done.

    3. Their #3 option was unpitchable in the playoffs, and their #2 option was unpitchable for most of the season (Williams’ ERA was somehow WORSE in the second half than it was in the first half). I don’t think losing them hurts them that much.

      But yes, the bigger issue I think is that they need to upgrade the guys behind Doval and Cruz, with Doval and Cruz both A. now moving up the ladder and B. likely going to be way over-used by Boone at the moment.

  19. Several Major League Baseball (MLB) owners will reportedly push for a salary cap in retaliation for the Los Angeles Dodgers acquiring Kyle Tucker.

    The team owners were reportedly outraged after the Dodgers acquired free agent Kyle Tucker in the offseason, prompting a push for a salary cap, per Yahoo Sports.

    A source told The Athletic that the team owners will be pursuing a “cap no matter what it takes.”

    “Two other ownership sources took a softer approach, positioning the Tucker deal as validation of their longstanding positions: that revenue and payroll disparity in baseball need change,” it noted

    “It would take at least eight owners of 30 to effectively hold up a labor deal, but when it comes to a cap, internal politics will not be the owners’ biggest hurdle. Players have historically been willing to miss many games to avoid a cap system,” it added.

    https://www.breitbart.com/sports/2026/01/21/raging-mlb-owners-to-100-push-for-salary-cap-after-dodgers-acquire-kyle-tucker/

    2. So true.
      But still you can kind of see how Tucker signing with LA could really piss off anyone already inclined towards a cap system.

    3. The cost of Tucker to the Dodgers – between his actual salary and the luxury tax – is more than the entire payroll of 10 other teams. (i read that somewhere showing the numbers.) That’s ridiculous. Maybe if they put in a cap and a floor the players union would be OK? But as if now, baseball is broken.

    4. BF, don’t you think people were saying that for years about the Yankees?
      One has to be able to take what one dished out, I think.
      I’m okay with it. What I’m NOT okay with is the f*ing NY market acting like it can’t compete.

    5. Obviously, Hal could afford to spend more, but the big issue is that the owners of the Mets and Dodgers are so insanely wealthy OUTSIDE of the game that they can afford to run their teams at a loss. Heck, the Dodgers are owned by a PARTNERSHIP of billionaires, so they REALLY can afford to run the team at a loss (or at such a small profit as to not be realistic for people to run it at such a small profit).

      I don’t think it’s a bad thing, honestly, but it IS a significant difference between what they can afford to do and what Hal can afford to do.

    6. Brian, yes, they could afford to run the team at a loss.
      But ARE they?
      I’m guessing their share of player-name merchandise alone makes up the difference. Big names and WINNING.
      I bet they’re making MORE money off their more expensive teams than Hal is off of his cheaper (not cheap, of course) team.
      But I don’t know the numbers. Maybe someone here does?

    7. The owners will never let detailed enough numbers come out to actually determine their profitability. I mean, you’d think if they were losing money they’d share that to improve their case of needing salary reform right? But they don’t and won’t so we can only assume they ARE profitable and the lesser owners just want a leg up in competition.

  20. Brian I totally agree, the Yankees should have improved more but their relative position in the league is fine. Bal, Tor and Bos are all good teams with problems as well and none of them are any kind of lock for the playoffs or postseason success. There is some serious assuming going on in Boston about how good their young hitters are, but all I am thinking of is Casas and Campbell and how questionable the rotation is after Crochet. They have no reliable offensive star! Duran is good and Abreu is good and Trevor Story isn’t really much of a hitter these days. imagine having this lineup and knowing you got rid of Devers and lost Bregman in one season.

  21. Oops, this was supposed to be attached to Brian’s comment above. additionally, did you k ow that only 5 Red Sox had an OPS over .800 last year, and 2 of them were Bregman and Devers? One was platoon star Rob Refsnyder and the other two were career .729 OPS utlity player Romy Gonzalez and Roman Anthony. They have added Contreras, who could achieve that standard, but this could be a truly lackluster offense.

    1. Yeah, Anthony really looks to be their only guy that you’d be remotely worried about on that team next year. Pairing him with Bregman was a nice one-two punch, but Anthony alone? Not nearly as impressive.

  22. I’m not so much worrying about the division right now, or even the AL as a whole, when a world championship requires beating a significantly better National League champion. With this Yankees roster – a shallow bullpen, a largely Judge-dependent lineup with high strikeout rates and significant platoon vulnerability – I’m pretty sure the only chance of winning a World Series would be if the Dodgers flukily fizzle out in a short postseason series. And maybe they’ll need the Mets to fizzle too.

  23. Aaron Boone: “You’re always trying to improve your club and improve your team, but … also pause and say, ‘Hey, we’re pretty good here.’”

  24. Heyman, “Detroit Tigers asked for Ben Rice, Cam Schlittler and George Lombard Jr. at least in a deal for Tarik Skubal”

    I mean, I don’t think I do that deal, but that’s honestly a reasonable ask, right? You HAVE to be willing to give up Schlittler, even if it’s just one season of Skubal.

    1. I really might do that, but you’d have to be able to negotiate with Skubal first.
      Sometimes they let you do that – if they want the haul, why wouldn’t they?
      But you would you bet on the Yankees these days to offer enough that he signs now?

    2. If I knew it was one year – no, wouldn’t do that. If they’d improved on offense and this would make them to team to beat this year, then… maybe.
      But as it is, it wouldn’t.

    4. Gotta have Skubal sign a deal, though. You can’t deal all that for one year. And Boras always takes his clients to FA, so he is highly unlikely to sign a deal now.

    6. Framber Valdez seems like the wrong kind of hothead. There’s competitive fire like CC had, and then there’s hitting your own catcher intentionally.

  27. Someone talking shit about the Yankee offense, “It’s the same lineup that disappeared for the entire summer and only reappeared when the schedule featured a September of teams with nothing to play for.”

    If you want to complain about them not showing up for most of the Blue Jays series, I’m right there with you, but that description of the lineup is so fucking off base. The Yankees kicked ass in August AND September against a lot of tough competition. They ALSO had some easy games in September. But the idea that the Yankees didn’t look really fucking good in August and September is absurdly dumb.

    You want to criticize them for Toronto in the playoffs, go right ahead, but don’t just make up some narrative to fit your position.

  28. I bet they’re making MORE money off their more expensive teams than Hal is off of his cheaper (not cheap, of course) team.

    The Dodgers have a huge Japanese fan base. So yeah, they probably are in the black quite nicely. The Mets, if in the black, it has to be barely.

    1. Agreed on the Mets, but I dunno, an extra $100 million is still a lot of money. I agree that they have a lot of revenue, but $400 million in just player costs? That’s a lot of money before you even get into the other stuff they spend money on. I agree that they are likely still making money, but I think it’s closer to the Mets than not.

  30. The White Sox and right-hander Seranthony Domínguez are in agreement on a two-year, $20MM deal, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. Passan adds that the Epitome Sports Management is expected to be the closer for the Sox. Chicago has a full 40-man roster and will need a corresponding move to make this official.

    1. Dax Kilby should be higher just on his name alone.

      Sterling HR call –
      Kilby kills one?
      It’s a “Dax Jack”?
      Am I missing something more obvious?

    5. Brian nailed it with “Just the Dax, ma’am.” With Sterling’s affinity for all things 1940s-1960s it’s a no-brainer that he’d use a Dragnet reference.

    2. Yeah, as Don notes, he looks like he is one of those guys who has gone to extreme lengths to work on his mechanics to fix his career. He’s added nearly TEN MPH to his fastball since his last work in the Majors (after he debuted with strong velocity in 2022). So there might be something there.

    1. Yep, but I imagine they didn’t think the odds were high that he would last the whole season on the Major League roster, so they’re hoping they can sneak him through waivers.

  38. Has anyone ever seen Devin Williams and Andrew Tate in the same room? Just sayin’.

    I’m going to become an unabashed Yankee apologist this year. Go team! Thank you Hal for all you’ve done for me!

    1. With everything going on, I mean there’s got to be at least SOME hope of global plague or nuclear war.

    2. Well, considering how poorly the Yankees have done with IFA the past decade or so, maybe it doesn’t matter. Obviously, Brian Cashman doesn’t care.

    3. This is old news. They purged the entire international team, which meant freeing all of the guys they signed.

      As Don notes, if they’re not happy with their international team, then why would it be a problem to lose the last guys that team signed?

    6. Brian, your original take was that they probably didn’t like the system, but that they surely had agreements in place and were going to sign all the same guys anyway, not lose them all, wasn’t it?

    7. It was that they didn’t like the system, but when investigating the system after they decided to clean house, they seem to have discovered something shady, which led to them releasing EVERYone from their contracts. Presumably they’ll still end up re-signing some of them.

    8. Brian, so you’re suggesting that they WANTED to lose those signings – because, say, they’d been deceived about the players’ ages or something like that?
      Because otherwise it still does come off as both incompentent and really plain dumb.

    9. I think they felt that the contracts were possibly all illegal in some way, yes. For whatever reason (they’re not going to broadcast WHY, ya know?). So they felt it made the most sense to cut everyone loose. They can then re-sign some of the guys legally, but in general, they were moving past these guys anyways.

    1. Less for two years than Grisham for one year. With a higher WAR than Grisham last year. Fascinating.

  42. An interesting video comparing how Judge and Ohtani do against “elite” pitching (here arbitrarily defined as the top 5 Cy Young finishers, 2021-2025, omitting Ohtani since he can’t bat against himself). Some interesting coincidences (equal AB and hits). Basic conclusion is that both do a bit worse than their career numbers, Judge is a bit more impacted (30 points average and OBP, vs ~20 for Ohtani), but Judge still comes out ahead of Ohtani overall. So I guess for all the complaining I do about choking against elite pitching, it’s not as bad as it seems. Would have been nice if they’d also included the league-as-a-whole stats against the same pitchers, of course…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVqKhc7910I

    1. It would be great to look at numbers like these per player, per team. With a better definition of “elite pitching”, of course!

  45. Cashman never sleeps
    “The Yankees announced that they have claimed right-hander Dom Hamel off waivers from the Rangers. They also designated left-hander Jayvien Sandridge and outfielder Marco Luciano for assignment. The two DFAs open roster spots for Hamel and for Cody Bellinger, whose five-year deal was made official yesterday. Texas designated Hamel for assignment a week ago when they signed Jakob Junis.”

    1. “Reminds me of Willy Adames. At the plate, Lombard projects for above-average-to-plus raw power and has a swing geared to get to it in games, even if he hasn’t posted big homer totals yet. That’s not unusual for minor league shortstops: Lombard hit nine homers last year, but Adames never hit more than 11 homers in a season in the minors but has eclipsed 20 homers six times and 30 homers three times in the big leagues. His issue, similar to Adames’, is that this limits his contact ceiling, projecting as a 45-grade hitter which is roughly a .240 average. Lots of 3-win shortstops hit in the .240s or .250s but not many are below that, so Lombard is toeing the line of his offensive approach working, but I think it will.“

    3. I don’t know that this review sounds so good for Lombard.

      If he doesn’t improve on that 35 hit tool, those other factors matter a lot less. Those other skills won’t overcome for a .220-.225 batting average, which is what he projects for without improvement.

      If a win for Cashman is to have a no stick, pre-arb SS, with a decent glove who runs into a homer 18 times a year, he probably thinks he found one for three more years.

      The kind of player a second level team touts as up and coming as the team comes up short each season.

  47. 87 Elmer Rodriguez Rodriguez’s changeup is average to above and he throws a roughly average slurve, sweeper and cutter, in that order of usage. With two kinds of fastballs, Rodriguez has six average to above-average pitches, enough command to start, and just threw 150 innings last season, including a start in Triple-A. He’s now on the 40-man roster and could be a rotation option for the Yankees in 2026.

  50. Curry says that the Yankees ARE interested in a Goldy reunion if he’s okay with only playing against lefties. As I noted the other day, if he’s cheap, I’m fine with it. If Curry is saying it, it is probably actually true. Not many teams need a first baseman who can only play against lefties, so I bet he surprisingly had a bad market out there, so he suddenly might be affordable for the Yankees.

    That must mean that Rice would still catch some if Goldy is back, as I don’t think you can carry a backup first baseman AND a backup catcher with this roster.

    1. I’m a fan of positioning players to maximize their value. Rice at catcher for this team is maximizing value.

    2. But it’s only maximizing value if they have someone good at first base, right? I guess you could start the game with Belli at first, and move him to the outfield late in the game and bring Goldy in for defense? That could allow Dominguez to get regular reps in left field (with Goldy pinch-hitting for Dominguez against lefties, as well).

    3. That all does kind of make sense.
      Like all these conversations, though, I’m left with the feeling that they’re just one really big-time hitter short of what they need to be. Of pretty much all the major problems being minimized.

  51. The New York Yankees today announced that they have acquired right-handed pitcher Angel Chivilli from the Colorado Rockies in exchange for minor league infielder T.J. Rumfield and released Michael Siani.

  52. Yankees GM Brian Cashman is holding a press conference on January 28, 2026, to discuss the official signing of outfielder Cody Bellinger to a five-year deal. The discussion is expected to cover roster construction, balancing the outfield with prospects like Spencer Jones and Jasson Dominguez, and potential further additions before Spring Training.

  53. From the above link.

    In 73 Major League appearances, Chivilli permitted 107 hits with 71 strikeouts, 33 walks and 20 home runs allowed.

    Despite the results, the Yankees see upside. Chivilli throws hard and generated a combined 43.5% whiff rate on offspeed and breaking pitches in 2025, fueling the organization’s belief that his performance may improve away from hitter-friendly Coors Field.

    1. Fifty% ground ball rate and they think his secondary pitches might break more at sea level. Halos take Ort who averaged 96.8 mph on his four-seamer in that time and notched a strong 12.6% swinging-strike rate.

  54. Kirschner I asked both Brian Cashman and Aaron Boone today about running it back with a similar roster as last season.

    “I’ve been openly willing to challenge anybody that we don’t have a championship-caliber roster and team.”

  55. Hoch “ Anthony Volpe is “working his tail off” at the Tampa complex as he rehabs from surgery, Brian Cashman said. The Yankees have previously said they don’t expect Volpe back until after April.”

    Tell him to take his time.

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