The Yankees went deep into the offseason before finally re-signing Cody Bellinger in late January. Five months later, Bellinger is the last man standing in New York’s high-powered outfield -- and one of the most important free-agent signings any team made last winter.
Injuries to Aaron Judge and Trent Grisham have left the Bronx Bombers without two-thirds of their starting outfield and thrust unproven youngsters Jasson Domínguez and Spencer Jones into prominent roles. Designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton is also sidelined with no return date in sight after suffering a setback with his injured left calf.
As a result, an offseason decision that was already paying dividends has become all the more crucial.
The 30-year-old Bellinger has been excellent all year, recording a .265/.361/.462 slash with 10 homers, 45 RBIs, eight steals and a 130 wRC+ through 69 games. He’s also been one of the best defensive left fielders in MLB, tying for first in fielding run value (+4) at the position.
His numbers stand out even more when you compare him to last winter’s other big-money bats. Bellinger, who finalized a five-year, $162.5 million deal with the Yankees on Jan. 26, was one of six hitters to sign nine-figure deals this past offseason. Those moves have yielded mixed results for the teams involved.
While Bellinger and the Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber are having strong years, the Dodgers’ Kyle Tucker, the Mets’ Bo Bichette and the Cubs’ Alex Bregman have been disappointing. The Orioles’ Pete Alonso is somewhere in the middle, as he’s heated up lately after an underwhelming start to the year.
Bellinger has been the best of the bunch in terms of WAR (per FanGraphs).
- Bellinger: 2.3 fWAR
- Schwarber: 2.0 fWAR
- Alonso: 1.6 fWAR
- Bregman: 1.3 fWAR
- Tucker: 0.7 fWAR
- Bichette: 0.7 fWAR
Among all free agents from this past offseason, only the Giants' Luis Arraez (2.5 fWAR) and the Blue Jays' Dylan Cease (2.4 fWAR) have recorded more WAR than Bellinger in 2026.
From the Yankees’ perspective, what’s most encouraging is that Bellinger's underlying numbers back up the production. That wasn’t always the case, which made him a difficult free agent to evaluate when he hit the open market after the 2023 season and again after ’25.
While Bellinger was 23% better than the average hitter from 2023-25 (123 wRC+), his expected wOBA (.317) was right at league average in that span thanks to some questionable contact-quality metrics.
Bellinger’s 32.2% hard-hit rate in 2023-24 was particularly poor. But after increasing it to 37.9% last season, he’s sustained those gains this year (37.6%). He also has been launching the ball in the ideal line-drive and fly-ball range of 8-32 degrees more than ever (39.4%), while striking out at the lowest rate of his career (12.4%) and walking more often (13.7%) than he has in years.
All of those components have caused his xwOBA to rise 46 points to .369, which ranks in the 86th percentile. That would be the highest figure he’s recorded in a full season since his NL MVP season in 2019.
That also happens to be the last time Bellinger made the All-Star team, but he has a strong chance to return to the Midsummer Classic this year -- perhaps even as a starter for the AL. As of Monday, when the first All-Star ballot standings update was released, Bellinger ranked third among AL outfielders in All-Star votes behind Judge and Mike Trout.
As for the Yankees, they moved past the Rays for first place in the AL East over the weekend, marking the first time they had sole possession of that spot in more than a month. They also have the AL's best record entering the start of a three-game series against the upstart White Sox at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night.
If the Yanks are still there by the end of this season, their decision to re-sign Bellinger in January is going to be a big reason why.