Chapter 1: What updates are there on Cody Bellinger's situation with the Yankees?
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Welcome back. This is episode 509 of the NYYST podcast. We're presented by NYY Underground. I'm your host, Christian. And if you thought... that we'd have an answer on Cody Bellinger by the time we sat around and did this episode. I don't know what to tell you because the Cody Bellinger saga continues for the New York Yankees. It's about 6.30 on Sunday night.
Maybe something will break in between now and when you guys hear this in the morning because I got to believe that something is going to happen and happen soon with Cody Bellinger, especially now that Kyle Tucker and Bo Bichette are off the board. And we're going to talk all about that in the latest reporting on Cody Bellinger. But before we do that,
this is the official yankee podcast of odyssey make sure you go out and tell everybody uh while you were out shoveling your snow today hopefully you yelled out hey you guys here ny yst is the official yankee podcast of odyssey and if you have and if you haven't go over there to your favorite podcast platform click subscribe leave them a final uh a five-star rating review this is their final season make sure everybody knows that okay so we can go out with a bang here and um
My new podcast, my limited run Rocky podcast, The Thrill of the Fight, 50 Years of Rocky, episode one dropped this past Wednesday. Thank you to everybody that's reached out and listened to that as well. That will be available on this very same feed that you're listening to the NYYST podcast right now. I've already recorded episode two. which will cover the original Rocky movie.
I'm very excited about that popping on Wednesday. So that's all the bookkeeping and the Yankees don't need a bookkeeper because you know, what's, what accounting do they have to do other than, um, you know, nothing. I mean, I, I don't, let's just quickly talk about David. I'm going to call him. I'm going to call him David Weathers for his entire time here with the Yankees. Ryan Weathers, uh,
My days are getting confused because I'm just doing a lot of different things all at once here. Ryan Weathers was traded to the Yankees. I don't believe we touched on that last week because I think it happened during the week. I was on NYU with Kev as a little preview of what the Bronx or nowhere is going to look like come March. We talked about Ryan Weathers.
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Chapter 2: What impact do the trades of Kyle Tucker and Bo Bichette have on the Yankees' strategy?
And I'm not saying that you should engage in a bidding war for Cody Bellinger because at the end of the day, who's Cody Bellinger? But if that's the player that you earmarked as your number one target, and you're not willing to go and fight for him, and then all the options that would make you as good or better or off the board, then you screwed up royally in this offseason.
And this is coming from somebody that wants to see Jason Dominguez play more and still has hope for Jason Dominguez. But again, that's a big unknown for the New York Yankees is what Jason Dominguez is and can be at the major league level because we already know the Yankees don't even like him. And we know that based on how they treated him last year.
And now if Cody Bellinger doesn't come back, they'll gaslight you into thinking, oh, we loved him all along. He just needed another year of seasoning, you know, coming off the oblique and Tommy Johnny didn't play enough and blah, blah, blah. And they'll sell you a whole bill of goods on Jason Dominguez and how much they truly love him.
Which if that was the case, no qualifying offer for Trent Grisham. They wouldn't have chased Cody Bellinger. They would have just given him a frigging job, which they're not doing. They're clearly not doing that. But they'll lead you to believe that they always loved him if Cody doesn't come back because that's what they're stuck with.
So the Yankees can talk tough all they want, that we're not going to engage in a bidding war. Well, this was your number one target. This was your top priority, and you're not going to go fight for him. So what did you do? Just all this for shits and giggles here? And, yeah, I am also mad at Cody Bellinger and Scott Boris, too, because this whole thing is a frigging sham right here.
The Yankees have a five-year deal worth $32 million per and are allowing you to opt out twice, and it's still not good enough for you? Go fuck yourself. How about that? The Cubs dumped you last year for Cody Petit, and they didn't even get anything for Cody Petit. They didn't even care. They could have gotten some used hot dog wrappers for Cody Bellinger last year.
They just wanted him off the frigging team. And now he's going to sit there and strong-arm the Yankees? Come on, bro. It's ridiculous how this whole thing has been played by both sides. Somebody asked me the other day, what do I think? The chances are that he comes back.
I'm still like 55-45 that he does, but every day it's creeping closer to the opposite direction because I don't know where either side goes from here. I don't know that either side has legitimate options. We know the Yankees don't. The Yankees cannot bring in another offensive player as good as Cody Bellinger. They just can't. There's nobody left. And the trade names that you hear are ridiculous.
They're not going to make the Yankees better. They're not even going to make the Yankees as good with Cody Bellinger. Oh, Harrison Bader, bring him in anyway. I would bring in Harrison Bader anyway, to be honest with you. And I would use him to platoon with Trent Grisham.
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Chapter 3: What are the implications of Ryan Weathers' trade for the Yankees?
And then you put a guy like Bobachet at second base who reports were that he was willing to play second base for a new team, who has a career 121 OPS. He's never been below that mark in his entire career except for in 2024.
when he was hurt so wouldn't it be nice to have a second baseman right-handed who averages for his career being 21 better than the average major league hitter wouldn't that be nice and if you don't want to trade jazz chisholm you can cut you could have cut this whole cody drama off right at the knees and said hey jazz you're a left fielder this year you don't like it we'll trade you
And then you're much more willing as a Yankee fan to go out there and live with the Jason Dominguez experiment because now you have a legitimate major league star hitter at second base in Bo Bichette. And you're saying, well, is it a net negative, a net neutral with Bo versus Jazz? I don't know, but this team also needs a shakeup.
They keep running the same thing out there year after year when they don't get the job done is the definition of insanity. So that's another reason why trading Jazz Chisholm would have been something that I was open to. I just don't know where the Yankees go without resigning Cody Bellinger. And I know a lot of Yankee fans are ready.
Look, I was ready to walk away from him last week when the Yankees still had Kyle Tucker and Bo Bichette on the table for them. But I'm not willing to do that anymore. I'm sorry. I need a certain standard put on that baseball field on March 25th. And not even bringing back Cody Bellinger is below that standard. I mean, guys, how many more times do we have to talk about it?
When are the Yankees going to get it into their frigging heads that Aaron Judge is entering his age 34 season? If you didn't know, a man's physical prime generally ends around 35. So do you have one more year of Aaron Judge at this prime level, MVP level, where if it wasn't for a wall in Los Angeles, it could have been a four-time reigning MVP?
And you're not even going to put out a team as good as the one you had last year? When you look at some of the salaries that are going around in baseball, I know Aaron Judge signed a nine-year deal. And these are short-term deals. But a guy like Kyle Tucker is getting $20 million more a year than Aaron Judge. Bo Bichette is getting $2 million more a year than Aaron Judge.
And this guy could have gotten more money from the San Diego Padres and it took less to stay a Yankee. And you're not even willing to go fight... For Cody Bellinger, every single day that the Yankees go on this World Series drought and don't put a legitimate number two behind Aaron Judge in this lineup, it makes last year look worse and worse.
I came on here and I said the Yankees offered whatever it was to Soto, 16 for 750, whatever the hell the number was. Who cares at this point? And I said, they made, I mean, come on now. It was just that Steve Cohen wasn't going to be outbid. And the Yankees lost him. And then they pivoted to Max Freed and Cody Bellinger.
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Chapter 4: How does the Yankees' front office view their offseason moves?
They couldn't trade these guys. But they did. And they added the depth of Brito and Vasquez. And they gave up four young pitchers. Guys with multiple years of control for one year of Juan Soto. But they did it. They finally put their balls on the table. And they said, we have to go and do this. And they did it. You know what happened? They went to a World Series.
Every other year since Aaron Boone's been here, they haven't nutted up like that, and they haven't gotten to a World Series. So every year that they don't do that necessary move, every year that this drought goes on longer and longer, it looks like a worse and worse move that Hal Steinbrenner got scared of the big bad billionaire and walked away from Juan Soto.
Because you mean to tell me if Hal Steinbrenner is in Boris' ear, he's in Soto's ear, and he says, we're not getting outbid. We're not getting outbid. Take whatever number this guy's coming at you with and come back to us and I'll top it by a dollar. You think they're just going to take Steve Cohen money and run? No, look what he's doing with Cody Bellinger.
You don't mean to think he's doing that with Juan Soto? Come on now. But Hal Steinbrenner drew a line in the sand with Juan Soto, and it cost the Yankees dearly. And I love Max Fried. And again, for one year, the Yankees were probably better off with a combination of Bellinger and Fried than they were with just Juan Soto, especially when you factor in the injury to Garrett Cole.
Because who knows if they even get to the division series if they didn't have Max Fried taking his dirty starts last year. But again, I mean, this is where we drew the divisions. What are we talking about here? Juan Soto got the Yankees to the World Series. They appeared. It wasn't like Batman and Robin. It was like Batman and Batman. OK. Or it was like Iron Man.
If you want to do like, you know, Marvel, like Captain America and Iron Man, like Judge is better, but it's not like Soto's a sidekick either. And you had that pairing, and you got to a World Series. This year you didn't, and you didn't. And you didn't get to the World Series. You didn't even get to a championship series.
And now you're telling everybody you're prepared to walk on from Cody Bellinger And then what? And then you expect the stadium to be packed every day? Oh, yeah, we're a world champion contender with a guy at left field that we didn't even want to play last year over Trent. We didn't even give him at-bats over Trent Grisham last year. Again, get it.
You know, Trent Grisham earned the right to play over Jason Dominguez based on performance, especially in the first half of the season. But I'll say it again, guys. The Yankees allowed that to happen because they didn't love, they don't love Jason Dominguez. You don't mean to tell me that if they – anybody.
I mean, I don't know who was – I can't – they could have brought in anybody to back up Anthony Volpe. Oswaldo Cabrera, for instance, and given him two or three starts a week. You don't think Oswaldo Cabrera in 2023 is outplaying Anthony Volpe? Come on now. Let's be realistic here. But they didn't even give anybody the chance to outplay Anthony Volpe.
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Chapter 5: How are the Yankees' fans reacting to the team's current direction?
And again, if he did, then he's not the guy we thought he was. You want to win? Tom Brady took a lot less money than a lot of other quarterbacks because he, and again, capped sport, I know, but he could have went out there and demanded 40, 50, 60, whatever these top quarterbacks were making because Tom Brady's the GOAT. He didn't. He left money on the table for them to sign other players.
He wanted to win. Not making the most money was not the most important thing to Tom Brady. He was winning. So you mean to tell me that if Gary Cole knew he could have got a guy like Yamamoto and it would have put him $20 million over what he made, you think he's going to cry about it? I'm like, you can't do that to me. No, he wants to win. Same thing with Aaron Judge. Oh, you can't give both.
How are you going to do that to me, bro? Hey, I'm with Aaron Judge. No, he wants to win. You think Aaron Judge ought to... Juan Soto could have potentially made $10, $15 million more a year than Aaron Judge did. He didn't care. You want to know why? Because they went to the World Series together. And now you won't even give him fucking Cody Bellinger?
You're prepared to walk from Cody Bellinger and give him a team that's worse than the one that it was last year. Go look it up. Google, when does a man's physical prime end? It says by the age of 35, most men end their physical primes. Now, is Aaron Judge most men? No, he's not. He's a god amongst men with the way he plays baseball.
But it is more than fair and more than okay to sit there and have that thought in your mind of when it's going to end for him. And not end like he's going to fall off a cliff and be a 230 hitter, but being the MVP, being the best right-handed hitter, being the best of the best, that it's going to end sooner rather than later.
And you're going to walk away from Aaron Judge's prime with one World Series appearance and never having truly built a real team around him when he's sitting there watching the Dodgers win two titles and then go at Kyle Tucker and Edwin Diaz and say it all be damned. That's how the Yankees are operating. And there are fans that are completely okay with that. I know the year you were born...
Just based on how okay you are with how the Yankees operate this offseason. You know, obviously, you put it in a five or ten year window, but I know. I know you didn't see the dynasty. I know that maybe you probably barely remember 2009. Maybe that was your first real memory of a baseball team.
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Chapter 6: What potential alternatives do the Yankees have if they lose Bellinger?
that you don't remember that the Yankees traded for Nick Swisher. We're perfectly okay with Nick Swisher playing first base. And then they said, hey, wait a second, we can get Mark DeShera? We can do that? Let's do it. You want to know why? Because we're the Yankees and we can. After signing the two best starting pitchers on the market in A.J. Burnett and C.C. Sabathia.
A lot of Yankee fans get mad and say, don't you dare put the Yankees and Dodgers in the same breath. That we built our team off of homegrown talent, and they're just going out there and buying stars, which is true. There's a difference in that, that the Yankees did build these teams off of the backs of their homegrown talent.
But you know how they were able to keep them together and win multiple championships? They spent money to keep them. And they supplemented them with stars like Roger Clemens. And they went out there and they spent money to go and add. Oh, the Yankees didn't win the World Series in 2001? Let's go get Jason Giambi.
After winning four World Series in five years and being in four consecutive World Series. Let's just go out there and get Jason Giambi now. After we didn't win the World Series in 2001. We'll just go and get Jason Giambi. I know, yes, it was the end of the dynasty turnover, but they didn't rest on the fact that they were just in the World Series.
They didn't rest on the fact that they were in four consecutive World Series. They went out there and they got Jason Giambi. Think about how that 2009 team was built. The Yankees, if they went out and traded for a guy like Nick Swisher to play at first base this year, Nick Swisher's playing first base. It doesn't matter who's available.
The Yankees looked at an opportunity and said, we can get Mark Teixeira, and he can be our first baseman. Hell yeah, we're doing that. And then we'll play Nick Swisher in right field. We'll make the team even better. Not these Yankees. Not Hal Steinbrenner's Yankees, folks.
So as we wrap up the show here and we continue to wait for Cody Bellinger, that maybe, maybe someday soon we will have an answer on Cody Bellinger and where he's going to play baseball in 2026. I want Cody Bellinger back. I've never been shy about that. I know last week I said I would walk away from him, and that was with Kyle Tucker and Bo Bichette on the board still.
Now with them not on the board, the Yankees have to do this. They have to figure out a way to get this done.
part of me like i would say 15 to 20 percent of me do want the yankees to lose cody bellinger because i really truly want to see what they do here like it's like watching a car wreck almost it's like you want to see what the disaster turns into like what was the what what happened here like you can't drive away from a car wreck like you got to sit there and see like the mangled the mangled metal all together like like you know you got to sit there and watch it
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