The Yankees were never going to be able to find a like-for-like replacement for Juan Soto in the outfield after the slugger swapped Queens for The Bronx this offseason. But former MVP Cody Bellinger has carried plenty of the load.
After a three-homer night against his former employers, the Chicago Cubs, on Friday night, the outfielder now has 16 long balls on the season with 54 RBI and a solid .285/.340/.498 slash line for a .838 OPS (131 OPS+ and 131 wRC+). Could Bellinger find himself as an eleventh-hour addition to the American League roster for the All-Star Game? The Yankee and AL skipper said he didn’t know but had been lobbying for the outfielder’s inclusion.
“I tried to make my case for him the last couple days,” Aaron Boone said before Saturday’s matinee. “Even before [Friday] night’s exclamation point, felt like he was worthy. You never know, obviously there’s been a lot of changes [to the roster] over the last few days of people in for each other. I really don’t know.”
The Yankees are already sending four to Tuesday's game, starter Aaron Judge and reserves Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Carlos Rodon, with Max Fried going, but not on the roster after dropping out.
After a terrible slump in May, Bellinger's left-handed swing has looked pure as he's batting .406 with a 1.162 OPS during his 16-game hitting streak.
“Feels great,” he said after a Yankee Stadium curtain call in Friday’s win. “That was a cool moment.”
Bellinger, who arrived as a part of the Cubs' salary dump of his $27.5 million contract for the 2025 season, was looking to continue a career resurgence after his Dodger career fell apart in his final two years in Los Angeles. His NL Rookie of the Year season in 2017 and NL MVP in 2019 seemed like distant memories when he posted a .193 average and .611 OPS over his final 239 games.
After modest success during two seasons in the Second City, his time in New York is off to a fine start, and the added pressure of Soto’s departure and the weight of the pinstripes isn’t affecting the son of a former Yankee.
“Chill,” was the first word Boone used to describe the outfielder on the eve of his 30th birthday.
“He’s a grinder, he’s a gamer,” the skipper continued. “He’s a really good athlete. His speed and the way he moves, and just being able to do really everything on the baseball field, really stand out, which is not surprising for a former MVP. He does a lot of things really well on the diamond.”
That athleticism has been very apparent in the outfield with his four outs above average (91st percentile) and four fielding run value (84th percentile), and a 28.4 feet per second sprint speed (79th percentile) on the bases. Off the field, his addition to the clubhouse has been just as good.
“He’s a really good teammate, the right kind of pro that you want, there’s a lunch pail element to him,” the skipper said. “There’s a blue-collar way about him, but he’s also very laid back and easy to be around, too.”
Yanks resilient amid roller coaster streaks
Friday night's 11-0 drubbing pulled them to 2.0 games back in the AL East as the Yanks pushed the winning streak to five games, which of course followed a six-game losing skid that saw them fall from the top spot in the division. What has it been like for Boone and the club to ride that roller coaster?
“Feels like for the most part we’ve played good baseball, the two six-game losing streaks really kinda put a damper on that,” the manager said. “In and around that, I feel like we’ve been solid.”
Boone praised his clubhouse for being “so good at dealing with the day-to-day and the struggles, the highs and the lows” to make sure they stay on the right track with the right “mindset and focus.”
The response: The current five-game streak equals the club’s high-water mark for consecutive wins this year, which they did twice previously. And despite a spate of injuries to starting pitchers – Gerrit Cole lost for the year in spring training, Luis Gil still waiting to make his season debut, and Clarke Schmidt lost to Tommy John this mont – they are they sit at 53-41 (.564), they still have the fourth best record in the AL heading into the break.
“Dealt with some attrition, obviously, with some guys going down,” Boone continued. “But the one thing, we’re sitting here, 90-plus games in with a long way to go, we’ve given ourselves an opportunity to be the team we want to be.
“We’re not a finished product yet. We have lofty goals and aspirations, and that remains the same. Hopefully, over these final couple of months, we put ourselves in a position to be in the playoffs and play a consistent band of baseball, that’s what we’re working towards.”
Gil inching closer and closer
Last year's Rookie of the Year is getting closer to his 2025 season debut.
Boone said Gil will begin his minor league rehab assignment on Sunday at Double-A Somerset.
The right-hander faced live batters before in late June and "looked really good" in what was an "important" step, the skipper said at the time.
"I think he was 95, 96 (mph)," Boone said June 21 about Gil's fastball velocity. "It looked every bit of that. Just the metrics on the four-seam was really good, too. And I thought he was in control of himself, too. So, free and easy. I thought he executed some really good changeups."
Gil has been on the 60-day injured list since March 24 with a right lat strain. He pitched to a 3.50 ERA and 1.193 WHIP in 151.2 IP over 29 regular-season starts for the Yankees last year.
