\n<\/p>\n
A lot has changed in the free market in the last 24 hours and it may change again in the next 24 years the way things are going. Kyle Tucker, who the Mets thought they were getting, is a Dodger. Bo Bichette is now a Met. And Cody Bellinger, with the B’s, could be Plan B for both New York teams, and here’s why:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The Mets still need another outfielder who can hit. The Yankees need a hitter like Bellinger to provide the same type of protection for Aaron Judge that Juan Soto did before Soto became a free agent leaving the Yankees for the Mets.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Put it another way: The Mets, even a big trade with Bichette, the Blue Jays shortstop who will be the Mets’ third baseman — we’ll see how that fits with general manager David Stearns’ idea of \u200b\u200bpreventing a better run next season at Citi Field — might want Bellinger. He continues to make a lot of sense for them as they have lost the belts of Pete Alonso and Brandon Nimmo.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
But the Yankees’ circumstances have not changed. They really need Bellinger, even though it has been reported that his agent, Scott Boras, wants a seven-year contract and sources say that the Yankees are not moving away from five. We may be about to find out — perhaps as soon as the Mets move on Bichette after Tucker ends up heading to Los Angeles the way Edwin D\u00edaz already has — if the Yankees’ mindset on all of this might change if the Mets get involved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
What we know for sure, with Tucker and Bichette off the board, is that Bellinger is the biggest remaining piece. And there’s at least a chance there could be a version of the kind of overheated bidding war we got when the Mets and Yankees battled Soto. Nothing like this has ever happened before with a star free agent like this, not with the Yankees and Mets.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Ironically, it was the Dodgers who just did the same thing to the Mets with Tucker that the Mets did to the Yankees last winter with Soto. The Yankees went as far as they ever had with their offer to Soto and thought it would be enough. The Mets think their reported offer for Tucker — up to $55 million a year — will blow everyone out of the water until the Dodgers do the Dodgers thing and win the day with an offer up to $60 million a year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
So Bellinger was still out there on Friday when Bichette came off the board. Bellinger is still a formidable and versatile player, and he has something on his resume that even Soto didn’t have last winter: He’s the MVP. And because everything seems to go in Los Angeles these days — including the Commissioner’s Award — it’s worth noting that Bellinger won his MVP while still a Dodger (2019).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The Yankees have made it clear since the end of the season how much they would like to retain Bellinger’s services — as a hitter, as an outfielder, even as a teammate. In all important ways, along with Soto in another baseball base in New York, Bellinger was the second most important player for the Yankees in 2025, behind Judge. He ended up with 29 home runs and 98 RBIs, playing in 152 games. If he didn’t provide as much batting order protection as Soto had last year, he provided more than enough for the Yankees to want him back.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Yankees manager Brian Cashman has repeatedly said that Bellinger was “very good” — and still can be — for his team. But Cashman often added this: “He would have been a good fit for anybody.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Again: Cashman has made no secret of how much he wants Bellinger to return to the apron. He and Tucker just saw what everyone else in baseball saw Thursday night: That sometimes the money you’re willing to spend has to change when it comes to someone you not only want, but need.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The Dodgers end up hoarding talent and spending money because, being talented, they know what the margins are like in baseball, and I’m not talking about profit margins. They almost got past the Padres in October 2024. And they came as close as they could to losing Game 7 to the Blue Jays in October 2025 before they lost. That’s why they keep coming the way they do.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The Mets needed to do something after losing Tucker. They did something with Bichette, but they still have a lot to do after last season ended with them. Maybe the next move is for the Yankees. Do you know why? Because to them, Plan A and Plan B is still Cody Bellinger.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A lot has changed in the free market in the last 24 hours and it may change again in the next 24 years the way things are going. Kyle Tucker, who the Mets thought they were getting, is a Dodger. Bo Bichette is now a Met. And Cody Bellinger, with the B’s, could be Plan …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1686,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2822"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2823,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2822\/revisions\/2823"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}