Laura Albanese: Yankees were wise to re-sign Cody Bellinger but are running out of runway to 'run it back'
The Yankees' Cody Bellinger, right, celebrates with Aaron Judge at Yankee Stadium on July 11, 2025. Credit: Getty Images/Evan Bernstein
The Yankees did what they needed to do when they re-signed Cody Bellinger. They brought back a versatile, top-tier defender with enough pop to protect Aaron Judge in the lineup, and a personality that meshed seamlessly with his teammates in the Bronx last year.
And there was a certain comfort to his introductory news conference Wednesday: For however volatile his career has been, Bellinger is a known quantity who didn’t wilt under the pressure of playing here. “I’m very excited to be back,” he said. “Yankee Stadium was a really special place to play, and I enjoyed my time.”
Good for general manager Brian Cashman for getting the player he so clearly prioritized at the outset of this offseason. Throughout it all, though, there was still that small, nagging voice that’s followed the Yankees for a few years now. By the way, Cody, how do you feel about rejoining a roster so similar to the one that succeeded last year, yes, but also got curb-stomped by the Blue Jays in the ALDS?
“Obviously, it may not be what everyone wants to hear, but I really do love the group we had,” Bellinger said. “I’m excited to run it back with these guys.”
There it is: “Run it back.” It’s been this franchise’s unofficial mantra for a while now – same manager, same GM, similar personnel, and the same result. But once again, Cashman is urging fans to believe that this time, it’ll work. He also thinks (maybe fairly) that this is an overly simplistic view of what the Yankees have done in an otherwise quiet offseason.
“It’s not the same roster,” he said, noting that they’ll have Gerrit Cole returning from the injured list, and expect their younger players to take the next step. “We added a lot of weapons at [the trade deadline] and their finding their proper slots, maybe, and how to be utilized and deployed, and also [overcoming] the growing pains of competing in the New York arena, getting some exposure to postseason baseball, especially in the American League – I think that will all serve us well. So, I disagree that it’s the same team running it back.”
Cashman’s assessment feels more philosophical than practical, though. No one is exactly the same person they were a few months ago – humans change and grow and interact with their environment. And while there’s value to that, you can’t definitively say that this Yankees team is markedly better than the one they fielded last year.
Getting Cole and a few other players back is a huge boon, and some newer Yankees might indeed find their footing (and some might not). But all that may very well be mitigated by the fact that most of the other teams in the AL East got better, too.
The Blue Jays are obviously fearsome. Losing Alex Bregman stung, but the Red Sox aren’t to be trifled with. The Orioles may not be the punching bags they were last year. And the Rays…are the Rays. It’s among the toughest divisions in baseball, and standing pat feels like even more of a risk than taking the big swing. Add to that, it feels like all roads lead to the Dodgers, who've potentially collected enough Infinity Stones to blast 29 teams out of contention with a metaphorical snap of the finger.
Suddenly, what is undoubtedly a big move - five years, $162.5 million for Bellinger - seems relatively tame.
Aaron Boone, for his part, said he felt like they’d improved their roster flexibility, and sees more upside from “the guys that came of age for us in the rotation” – specifically mentioning Luis Gil, but no doubt thinking of Cam Schlittler as well. He's also counting on baseball's fickle nature.
“We got beat up in the division round,” Boone said. “It didn’t go our way. But it doesn’t mean it’s not going to go our way the next time.”
They certainly better hope it does, because the window for this team is getting smaller. Judge and Giancarlo Stanton are getting no younger, Cole is coming off Tommy John, and there’s a potential lockout looming in 2027.
The Yankees have been resistant to change, but change is resistant to no one. So, let’s act out this script one more time, but maybe for the last time.
Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.
