Baseball’s Winter Meetings are quickly becoming a distant memory, and the MLB free agent market continues to move in fits and starts. Two big names came off the board at the Meetings, with New York Mets all-time home run leader Pete Alonso jumping to the Baltimore Orioles, and Phillies 56-home run DH Kyle Schwarber returned to Philadelphia.
Also at the Winter Meetings, the Los Angeles Dodgers snagged elite closer Edwin Diaz from the Mets, and earlier in December, the Toronto Blue Jays signed former San Diego Padres right-hander Dylan Cease.
But some of the highest-profile players available remain without new teams, with just over two weeks until the end of 2025.
One of the top-ranked free agents — No. 3 out of the 50 ranked by ESPN.com — remains unsigned, but on Tuesday got an update to the projected contract he can expect — an update that may narrow the field of teams potentially interested.
Yankees Want Cody Bellinger Back
The New York Yankees are still stinging from last year, when they lost outfielder Juan Soto to the New York Mets on a record-setting free agent deal. The Bronx Bombers had acquired Soto just one year earlier, in a seven-player trade with the San Diego Padres.
When they acquired Soto, he had just one year remaining on his contract, but the Yankees were willing to gamble that they could bring him back for 2025. Now, the 2025 season is long over and the Yankees find themselves in an eerily similar situation.
In December 2024, the Yankees made another trade — though this one involved only two players. Sending pitcher Cody Poteet to the Chicago Cubs, the Yankees acquired former National League MVP Cody Bellinger, who was playing on a contract that allowed him an option to back out after one season.
That’s exactly what Bellinger did, following a season in which the 30-year-old hit 29 home runs and posted a solid .813 OPS for the Yankees.
The Yankees have reportedly made bringing Bellinger back their top offseason priority, and they remain the consensus favorite to sign the outfielder who was drafted in the fourth round by the Dodgers in 2013.
Bellinger’s Price Just Went Up, Expert Believes
But two months after their season ended in an American League Division Series loss to the Toronto Blue Jays, the Yankees have made no moves toward re-signing Bellinger, at least none that have been reported publicly. And according to a newly updated contract projection by ESPN.com expert Kylie McDaniel, the longer the Yankees wait, the more it will cost them.
“Coming off a 4.9 fWAR season, he’s primed to cash in,” wrote ESPN’s Jesse Rogers of Bellinger on Tuesday. “Bellinger’s ability to play first base as well as the outfield — and at a high level anywhere he plays — adds value to his résumé that Schwarber, Alonso and the others lack.”
Rogers then reported the new contract projection by ESPN prognosticator Kylie McDaniel, who at the outset of the offseason had Bellinger projected to receive a six-year, $165 million contract.
McDaniel’s updated projection — six years, $180 million.
Bellinger Would Be Top 10-Salaried Non-Pitcher
That’s an average annual value of $30 million, which would make Bellinger the 10th-highest paid position player in the major leagues, on an average annual basis. It would also make him the third-highest-paid Yankee behind only reigning, three-time AL MVP Aaron Judge ($40 million AAV) and 2023 Cy Young Award-winning pitcher Gerrit Cole ($36 million).
Whether the Yankees are willing to go there with Bellinger is a question that will likely be answered sometime before the end of the year. On the other hand, Bellinger’s free agent drama could easily drag on well into 2026.
Yankees Get Major Cody Bellinger Contract Update Amid Slow Free Agency