With the World Series officially over, we can fully turn our attention to 2026 as the Yankees build a team hopefully capable of competing for next year’s crown. One of the first dominoes to shape this offseason fell on Monday, as Cody Bellinger opted out of his contract to become a free agent.
This news is hardly surprising, as it has been expected ever since the Yankees lost to the Blue Jays in the ALDS. It’s also been a foregone conclusion because Bellinger had a very
good 2025 in New York. In 152 games, Bellinger hit .272/.334/.480 with 29 home runs, 98 RBI, and a 125 wRC+. In addition to that, he played very solid defense a couple different position, mostly at all three outfield spots. By fWAR, Aaron Judge was the only Yankee position player who was better than Bellinger in 2025. A former MVP, Bellinger went through a multi-season slump with the Dodgers, before rebounding with the Cubs in 2023. Due to those struggles, Bellinger hasn’t really had an opportunity to hit the market at an opportune time for him—he had to take an opt-out-laden deal after a Silver Slugger win in ‘23 due to his previous inconsistency—so it’s no surprise that he’s decided to take this chance at age-30.
The son of former Yankee Clay, Bellinger had long been predicted to join the Yankees ahead of the trade for him from the Cubs last offseason. The move turned out to be a savvy one—especially as a salary dump—as Bellinger ended up being a pretty perfect fit in Yankee Stadium, with all of the lefty’s home runs for the season going out to right or right-center field.
Despite being a really good fit, the Yankees now face an interesting choice in whether to bring back Bellinger. His 2025 was good enough to likely get him a decent-size long term contract, with some sources predicting six years and nearly $30 million a season. Now, the Yankees could easily handle that, even if the contract does turn bad towards the end, but there’s also another very intriguing outfield option on the market in Kyle Tucker, who is a better player. If the Yankees are going to give out a big money deal this offseason, he might be the better bet, even if Bellinger was quite solid for the Bombers this year.
There’s still a lot of time this offseason for the 2026 roster to take shape, and we’ll have plenty more to come on the Yankees’ strategy. But one of the first shoes we anticipated dropping has now done so.
