The remodeling of the post-Juan Soto Yankees took another important step Tuesday, when they acquired former MVP Cody Bellinger from the Cubs, The Post confirmed.
The long-anticipated trade gives the Yankees potential replacements in the outfield and infield. Bellinger can play center — allowing the Yankees to move Aaron Judge back to right if they wish — and he can play first base, where there’s a vacancy following Anthony Rizzo’s departure.
Bellinger, 29, has two years and $52.5 million remaining on his contract, which comes with a $25 million player option for 2026 that can be bought out for $5 million.
In exchange for Bellinger and $5 million to offset his price tag, the Yankees sent right-hander Cody Poteet to Chicago.
The move came after Soto, the Yankees’ No. 1 priority of the offseason, spurned them and signed a 15-year, $765 million deal with the Mets.
The Yankees finally got Bellinger, the 2019 NL MVP with the Dodgers, after the Cubs landed Kyle Tucker — another Yankee target — from Houston in a deal last week.
Bellinger’s father, Clay, played parts of three seasons for the Yankees, including for the World Series title teams in 1999 and 2000.
Since losing out on Soto, the Yankees have added Max Fried on an eight-year, $218 million free agent deal, traded with Milwaukee for closer Devin Williams and now picked up Bellinger, whose defensive versatility allows them to either go after another outfielder or first baseman.
The Yankees have shown interest in free-agent options at first base, including Pete Alonso, Christian Walker and Carlos Santana, while Josh Bell and Paul Goldschmidt also remain available.
Given the wealth of available first basemen — a list that also includes potential trade targets such as Cleveland’s Josh Naylor, Texas’ Nathaniel Lowe and Tampa Bay’s Yandy Diaz — Bellinger seems more likely to play center.
If Bellinger ends up in the outfield, Judge could move back to right, but even with Bellinger’s power from the left side, there’s no way he and Judge can replicate the once-in-a-generation 1-2 punch Judge and Soto did this past season.
With the acquisition of Bellinger, the Yankees are betting on him going back to his 2023 production, when he had an .881 OPS and 139 OPS-plus with the Cubs, his best marks since the ’19 MVP season.
His numbers slipped last year, as part of what’s been an up-and-down career, which began with a 39-homer, Rookie of the Year campaign in 2017.
Bellinger underwent shoulder surgery after the 2020 season and struggled through a horrific 2021 and an ugly ’22 before being non-tendered by the Dodgers and signing with the Cubs.
Now he’ll join a Yankee team that rode a lineup led by Judge and Soto to the AL East title and their first World Series appearance since 2009.
Once Soto departed for Queens, it was clear the Yankees would look much different moving forward, especially with the departures of Rizzo, Gleyber Torres and Alex Verdugo, as well.
As GM Brian Cashman noted last week, the Yankees had yet to pick up a position player.
That changed Tuesday, but second base also still needs to be addressed — unless Jazz Chisholm Jr. moves over to the right side of the infield, which opens up third base — and Jasson Dominguez figures to get his first shot at earning an everyday job in the outfield after a disappointing 2023 season coming off Tommy John surgery.
“The job isn’t finished here,” Cashman said last week. “We’ve got to move forward and figure out a way to put the best team on paper that we can. Now’s the time to strike in the wintertime with the inventory we have via trades or free agency. Eventually that inventory is going to get a lot smaller. … We want to take advantage of that opportunity.”
— Additional reporting by Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman
