The New York Yankees on Wednesday shipped four prospects, including their 2026 Baseball America “breakout” prospect Dillon Lewis, to the Miami Marlins for hard-throwing left-handed reliever Ryan Weathers.
But according to ESPN MLB insider Jeff Passan, the trade was made not only to bolster the Bronx Bombers bullpen, but to “pave the way for more dealing from their minor league starting depth.” In other words, the Yankees still have big plans for their offseason, with just a month to go before spring training camp opens.
The biggest plan for the Yankees offseason, however, has been the re-signing of free agent outfielder Cody Bellinger. The former National League Rookie of the Year and two years later MVP opted out of his contract after the season, but almost three months later remains without a team.
Yankees Have Offer on Table for Bellinger
According to an estimate by the sports business site Spotrac, Bellinger’s market value should come in at $183 million over six years. But according to longtime MLB insider Bob Nightingale of USA Today Sports, the Yankees have offered Bellinger less than that — and so far they are not moving off that offer.
“The Yankees and free agent Cody Bellinger’s stare-down continues with one month before spring training,” Nightingale wrote on Monday. “The Yankees have offered a five-year contract between $155 million and $160 million without deferrals. Bellinger is seeking at least a seven-year deal.”
The difference in years has caused the Bellinger talks with New York, where he hit 29 home runs — his highest total since his MVP year of 2019 — and posted an .813 OPS with 5.1 bWAR, to hit what another ESPN baseball insider, Buster Olney, called an “impasse”, a state that has not changed in about a week.
Now, according to NJ.com Yankees insider reporter Pete Caldera, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman and managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner have had about enough.
Yankees Dare Bellinger to Look Elsewhere
According to Caldera, in an NJ.com report published on Wednesday, the Yankees may not have given Bellinger a direct ultimatum — but they might as well have.
“At this point, it appears the Yankees are essentially telling Bellinger’s side to find a better offer from, say, the Mets, Dodgers or Blue Jays,” Caldera wrote.
According to FanSided MLB insider Robert Murray, in an interview on Thursday, the Yankees are inviting a “doomsday scenario” by presenting Bellinger with a take-it-or-leave-it offer.
“I think the fit for both sides is just so clear and so obvious that it almost makes too much sense for it not to happen,” Murray said on the Foul Territory podcast.
Teams Focusing on Tucker Over Bellinger
“A Bellinger reunion would essentially reboot the 94-win team of 2025… It would also take them beyond a $300 million payroll, exceeding the final luxury tax threshold. Ideally, as you’ve heard, ownership prefers to be under that figure,” Caldera wrote.
Unless a surprise suitor emerges, the Yankees appear to be daring Bellinger to find a better offer from teams that have little incentive to make him one. The Mets reportedly have made a four-year, $200 million offer to former Chicago Cubs outfielder Kyle Tucker, while Toronto has reportedly indicated that it would sign Bellinger to a 10-year deal.
In either case, neither team appears likely to make an offer to Bellinger until the Tucker situation gets resolved.
As for the Dodgers, the team that drafted Bellinger in the fourth round back in 2013, they appear to be content to “lurk” around Bellinger until the other organizations that could conceivably sign him have bowed out, according to reporter Colin Keane of Dodgers Way.
That leaves Bellinger in a position where either he folds on his demand for a seven-year contract, or simply continues to wait until Tucker signs and other teams turn to the 30-year-old as a Plan B.
Yankees Hit Cody Bellinger With Blunt Message as Contract Talks Stall