Bronx Zoo 2? Awkward Reunion as New Yankee’s Supermodel Wife Once Dated Star DH

Before the 1973 season, shipping magnate George Steinbrenner and a group of investors bought the New York Yankees for the then-princely sum of $10 million. Quickly earning the nickname “The Boss” for his dictatorial and sometimes capricious management style, Steinbrenner produced results for the storied franchise that were beyond dispute. Starting just three years after he bought the team and following a decade of mediocrity in the Bronx, Steinbrenner’s iron fist led the Yankees to four World Series appearances and two championships, as well as another American League Championship Series bid, in six years.

Steinbrenner was not the only loose cannon at Yankee Stadium during that period. The clubhouse was so ridden with conflict and soap opera-style drama in the 1970s and early 1980s that the Yankees of that era earned their own collective nickname — “The Bronx Zoo.”

But of all the strange antics of the Bronx Zoo Yankees, none was stranger than what happened in March of 1973, just three months after Steinbrenner took over, when two Yankees pitchers, Mike Kekich and Fritz Peterson, swapped wives.

Though the two pitchers claimed that the swap, which included trading their kids and dogs as well, was “nothing dirty,” the whole episode seemed just crazy enough to be typical of the 1970s when that type of experimentation with relationships was increasingly common among American adults.

New Potentially Uncomfortable  Situation for Yankees

Fast forward 51 years and another awkward situation may be set to develop in the Yankees clubhouse. On Tuesday, December 17, the Yankees acquired first baseman and outfielder Cody Bellinger from the Chicago Cubs in a trade for journeyman relief pitcher Cody Poteet who has appeared in just 24 Major League games since 2015 when he was drafted by the Miami Marlins in the fourth round out of UCLA. The Yankees also threw in cash “considerations.”

With that largely insignificant return, the deal really appears to be about the Cubs’ eagerness to ship out Bellinger’s $52.5 million in salary owed to him over the next two seasons, after Bellinger declined his opt-out clause and avoided entering free agency after the 2024 season.

But in addition to his hefty paycheck, the Yankees are also acquiring another potential liability — Bellinger’s wife, former Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Chase Carter, 27. Why could Carter be a problem, for the Yankees? In 2018 and 2019, Carter dated Yankees star outfielder and designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton.

Bellinger and Carter Have Two Children

Stanton and Carter, who is eight years his junior, ended their relationship in 2019 after less than a year. Carter, a native of the Bahamas’ capital city of Nassau, soon began a relationship with Bellinger.

The couple made their relationship public in 2020. They were married in December of 2023, in a low-key ceremony, but not before Carter gave birth to the couple’s two children, both daughters, Caiden and Cy. Caiden was born in November 2021, Cy in April of 2023.

Stanton at age 35 has not been married. The slugger who has 429 home runs in his 15-year MLB career, signed a 13-year, $325 million contract with the Miami Marlins in 2015, which the Yankees inherited when they acquired him in 2018. Stanton is continuing to enjoy the life of a wealthy bachelor in New York City. He now dates 32-year-old California-born actress Priscilla Quintana, who currently appears in the streaming TV series Based on a True Story.

Whether the relationship between Bellinger and Carter will cause a resurgence of the “Bronx Zoo” in the Yankee clubhouse will have to wait until Spring Training in February to be determined.

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