The New York Yankees have their Juan Soto replacement — or at least a guy who can take Juan Soto’s place on the field.
The team swung a trade with the Chicago Cubs for 2019 NL MVP Cody Bellinger, it announced Tuesday, betting on a talented player to bounce back from a rough couple of years. The Cubs are also sending $5 million to the Yankees and will receive right-handed reliever Cody Poteet in return.
The cash will reportedly cover $2.5 million of Bellinger’s $27.5 million salary in 2025 and $2.5 million of either his 2026 salary or the buyout if he doesn’t exercise his player option. Per USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, Bellinger has been informed that he will play center field for the Yankees, with Aaron Judge moving to right after covering center for all of 2024.
Bellinger’s father, Clay, was part of the Yankees organization from 1999 to 2001. He’ll also be working with his wife’s ex, as Chase Carter, the mother of his two children, dated Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton in 2018 and 2019.
Soto’s record-setting contract with the New York Mets left the Yankees in dire need of a corner outfielder with enough pop to slide into the middle of the order. Bellinger could fit that bill and was available via trade due to his contract with the Cubs, which gives him player options for 2025 and 2026 that pay him a total of $52.5 million.
The move ends a two-year tenure for Bellinger with the Cubs, and it’s not a big surprise, given that the team was rumored to be shopping him even before it acquired Houston Astros star Kyle Tucker, who fills a similar role, in a blockbuster trade. Two years after starting with a clean slate in Chicago, Bellinger will once again try to reestablish his stardom with a new team.
Cody Bellinger’s career has been chaotic
Bellinger is one of many people for whom 2019 feels like a very long time ago.
By his third season in the majors, Bellinger was a 23-year-old MVP with the Los Angeles Dodgers and on track to sign the kind of mega-deal that young, offensively dominant outfielders are prone to landing. Per Baseball Reference’s calculations, he was worth 8.6 wins above replacement in his MVP season in 2019, a larger number than the career highs of Soto and Tucker.
Then he performed perhaps the costliest high-five in the history of baseball.
After hitting a game-winning home run in Game 7…