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Scott Boras Said Cody Bellinger Has Been Pestering Him About Yankees Trade for a While
Cody Bellinger was traded from the Chicago Cubs to the New York Yankees on Tuesday, joining the team his dad, Clay, spent most of his career with, winning two World Series titles along the way in the '90s. As it turns out, getting to the Bronx has been high on Bellinger's priority list.
Yankees GM Brian Cashman told the media Wednesday that Bellinger's agent, Scott Boras, told Cashman that Bellinger's desire to play for New York was so pervasive Boras said he was "driving me crazy" with his attempts to get to the Bronx.
Last season, there were plenty of rumors leading up to the trade deadline that a Bellinger trade to New York could be in play. No such trade materialized, and there were some blockers on the way to getting a deal done now that were resolved by the Cubs sending $5 million in cash to the Yankees as a part of the deal ($2.5 million to cover part of his contract in 2024 and '25).
Bellinger did not secure a large deal during free agency ahead of the 2024 season as was largely anticipated. Instead, he signed a three-year contract that contained opt-outs after each year of the deal, allowing him to re-enter free agency if he wanted to. Bellinger's play regressed (though he was still an above average batter in terms of OPS), an unfortunate outcome for the Cubs who were then stuck with the contract for a player not playing up to expectations.
At the time, the deal was viewed as savvy for the team, but his struggles at the plate last year created some tension. The Yankees hope that a short right field at Yankee Stadium (and on the road against the Tampa Bay Rays, as Cashman pointed out) will be beneficial for him getting back in a groove similar to what he produced in 2023. Bellinger is a former MVP and has had an above-average OPS in six of his eight big-league seasons.
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Josh Wilson is the news director of the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in 2024, he worked for FanSided in a variety of roles, most recently as senior managing editor of the brand’s flagship site. He has also served as a general manager of Sportscasting, the sports arm of a start-up sports media company, where he oversaw the site’s editorial and business strategy. Wilson has a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from SUNY Cortland and a master’s in accountancy from the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois. He loves a good nonfiction book and enjoys learning and practicing Polish. Wilson lives in Chicago but was raised in upstate New York. He spent most of his life in the Northeast and briefly lived in Poland, where he ate an unhealthy amount of pastries for six months.