Cody Bellinger Yankees Trade Winners and Losers Including Aaron Judge, Cubs, More

Juan Soto may be gone, but that isn't stopping the New York Yankees from loading up for next year.

The American League champions' latest acquisition is Cody Bellinger via a trade with the Chicago Cubs, as first reported by Jeff Passan of ESPN: Bellinger comes to New York with a familiar namehis father, Clay, won World Series rings with the Yankees in 1999 and 2000and many accolades.

The 29-year-old is a Rookie of the Year and MVP winner with two All-Star nods, a Gold Glove, a Silver Slugger and a championship ring of his own.

Let's break down six winners and losers of Tuesday's big trade.

When the Yankees lost Soto to the cross-town Mets by way of a 15-year, $765 million deal, they felt a gut punch arguably unlike any they'd ever felt before.

Yet as recoveries go, theirs is proving to be a good one.

Even before the Bellinger trade, the Yankees had inked ace left-hander Max Fried to an eight-year, $218 million deal and dealt for All-Star closer Devin Williams.

With Bellinger now aboard, the Yankees can say they've responded to losing one star by adding three.

Granted, one Fried plus one Williams plus one Bellinger doesn't necessarily equal one Soto.

The Yankees' new trio combined for 7.1 rWAR in 2024, whereas Soto was worth 7.9 rWAR amid a season marked by a .419 OBP and 41 home runs.

All the same, the Yankees did have a hole in center field, plus two more in their rotation and bullpen, respectively.

Those are now filled.

As we'll discuss later, Bellinger in center also has a downstream benefit for Aaron Judge.

The Yankees can still add about $10 million in average annual value before they cross the highest luxury tax threshold for 2025.

That's payroll space they may yet put to good use.

In all fairness to the Cubs, they got a good deal on Bellinger when they signed him off the free-agent market last winter.

At the outset of the 2023-24 offseason, MLB Trade Rumors had projected Bellinger for a 12-year, $264 million deal.

That seemed reasonable at the time, as he was coming off an age-27 season in which he hit .307 with 26 home runs, 20 stolen bases and 4.4 rWAR .

But in the end, the Cubs lured him back for just $80 million over three years.

We should look back on that now as a major win, but that would be an abject rejection of reality.

Bellinger posted only 2.2 rWAR in 2024 and has now been traded for a depressingly light return.

Maybe the Cubs know something about Cody Poteet that the rest of us do not, but "maybe" is the operative word there.

He's a 30-year-old reliever with 24 MLB appearances on his record.

Still, the final story of this trade is not yet written.

With all but $5 million of the money Bellinger is still owed (somewhere between $32.5 million and $52.5 million) off the Cubs' books, the club is close to $50 million in AAV away from the first luxury tax threshold for 2025.

That could come in handy in free agency or (spoilers!) perhaps in another way.

As for Bellinger himself, this is a huge W for him, personally.

After the Cubs traded for Kyle Tucker last week, it wasn't entirely clear how Bellinger fit into the club's plans for 2025.

This is not the case for him now, as next year will be about playing his best position and taking aim at Yankee Stadium's short right field porch.

To the latter end, said porch would have been a huge boon to Bellinger this season: If the lefty-swinging Bellinger can collect those extra home runs in 2025, he'll have re-established himself as the rarest of breeds: A defensively talented center fielder who can hit for average and power.

If that happens, chances are he would opt to forgo his 2026 player option and enter the free-agent market instead.

Even if hasn't been kind to him in the past, he would merely need to find a contract worth more than $25 million to justify his decision.

Whereas Bellinger may be positioned to strike it rich in free agency a year from now, fortunes haven't taken a turn for the better for those currently on the market.

Namely, Teoscar Hernandez and Anthony Santander.

Both had been connected to the Yankees following Soto's deal with the Mets, including by Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com and Erik Bowland of Newsday .

As the two combined for 77 homers in 2024, either would have promised to replace Soto's lost power at least.

Now, it seems safe to assume that the Yankees won't be signing either one of them.

With Bellinger in center field and Judge in right field, the Yankees have stars in two of their three outfield spots.

And in top prospect Jasson Dominguez, they have a guy with star upside slated to play left field.

It's hypothetically possible that the Yankees will create an opening in left by shifting Bellinger to first base, with Dominguez going to center.

That is not the club's official plan , however, and to play Bellinger at first base would be to hamstring his on-field value.

Further, the Yankees adding to their outfield did not create a need for the Cubs to add to theirs.

With Tucker, Pete Crow-Armstrong and Ian Happ set to start, their outfield is plenty strong as is.

Moving Judge back to right field in 2025 was the Yankees' goal even before they added Bellinger.

Now nothing is keeping them from doing it.

Say it with me now: Phew.

This is not explicitly about Judge's center field lowlight from Game 5 of the World Series, but rather to the fact that having a 6'7", 282-pounder as a regular in center is a risky strategy at any age.

And Judge will be 33 years old on April 26.

With less ground to cover in right field, the chances of Judge remaining healthy as he ages are that much greater.

He has a real shot at becoming the fourth player to top 50 home runs four times, if not the first to do so five times.

As for Tucker, the Cubs were surely paying attention when he indicated his willingness to sign a contract extension on Tuesday: Extending Tucker won't be cheap.

He'll only turn 28 on January 17, and he's averaged 6.5 rWAR per 162 games over the last four seasons.

We're talking at least $300 million.

Maybe even $400 million.

But with Bellinger and his contract (mostly) off the books, the Cubs' war chest is that much fuller.

It will be malpractice if they don't at least try to extend Tucker.

The Yankees were the best team in the AL East this year, winning 94 games to capture the division title for the second time in three years.

Cut to now, and they're still the best team in the AL East.

Perhaps this is easily taken at face value, but we can already put some numbers to it.

According to FanGraphs , here is each AL East team's current WAR projection for 2025: To be sure, the other four clubs have done things to move their respective needles.

Tyler O'Neill brings real power to the Orioles.

Garrett Crochet is the ace pitcher the Red Sox needed.

Andres Gimenez upgrades an already strong defense in Toronto.

Danny Jansen is a better catcher than the ones the Rays had before.

Nonetheless, the pressure is now on all four clubs to make further moves to keep pace with the Yankees.

And even then, the Yankees can raise the bar even higher with further additions.

To this end, it bears noting that they still need a first baseman and that Pete Alonso and Christian Walker are still out there.

Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference , FanGraphs and Baseball Savant ..

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