Sources: Yankees stay busy, acquire Bellinger
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Jeff Passan, Senior MLB Insider
The New York Yankees acquired outfielder/first baseman Cody Bellinger in a trade with the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday, continuing to stock up on high-end talent in the wake of outfielder Juan Soto‘s free agent defection to the New York Mets, sources told ESPN.
In the deal, the Yankees will receive $5 million to offset Bellinger’s salary — he will make $27.5 million in 2025 and has a player option for $25 million in 2026 — and will send right-hander Cody Poteet to the Cubs, sources said.
Bellinger, 29, is a former National League MVP whose father, Clay, played for the Yankees from 1999 to 2001. His return to form after three substandard seasons came in 2023 with the Cubs, and he agreed to a three-year, $80 million free agent contract with Chicago in March.
After hitting .266/.325/.426 with 18 home runs and 78 RBIs this year, Bellinger declined to opt out of the rest of his deal. Chicago will pay $2.5 million to cover part of Bellinger’s $27.5 million salary this season. The remaining $2.5 million will either cover the contract buyout if Bellinger does not exercise his player option or go toward his $25 million salary in 2026, according to a source.
New York’s acquisition of Bellinger follows the free agent signing of left-handed starter Max Fried and the trade for All-Star closer Devin Williams. Coming off a World Series loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Yankees have spent the week since Soto’s signing fortifying themselves for another run.
Bellinger’s versatility fits perfectly to fill holes in New York’s lineup. He is an above-average center fielder and can either play there or in left field if the Yankees prefer to use rookie Jasson Dominguez in center. He also is a top defensive first baseman, and while Anthony Rizzo‘s free agency opened the position, New York could opt for an in-house option in Ben Rice or pursue Pete Alonso or Christian Walker in free agency.
At his best, Bellinger is a middle-of-the-lineup force whose bat-to-ball skills should help buttress the loss of Soto. When he won the MVP as a 24-year-old in 2019, Bellinger hit .305/.406/.629 with 47 home runs. Over his eight-year career, he has batted .259/.334/.484 with 196 home runs and 597 RBIs in 1,005 games.
The Cubs had spent the winter seeking a trade partner for Bellinger, looking to free up payroll in hopes of improving a team that went 83-79 this year. The teams spent significant time haggling over the amount of money the Cubs would include in a potential deal.
Ultimately, they settled on the $5 million figure and the 30-year-old Poteet, who started four games for the Yankees this year. In 24⅓ innings, Poteet struck out 16, walked eight and posted a 2.22 ERA. In three major league seasons split between starting and relieving, Poteet has a 3.80 ERA with 69 strikeouts, 35 walks and 13 home runs allowed in 83 innings.
NEW YORK — The New York Mets signed infielder Jared Young to a one-year contract Monday, adding depth at first base after star slugger Pete Alonso became a free agent this fall.
Young is a .210 career hitter with two homers, eight RBIs and a .725 OPS in 22 major league games and 69 plate appearances with the Chicago Cubs from 2022-23.
He was claimed off waivers by St. Louis in November 2023 and batted .285 with 11 homers and a .917 OPS at Triple-A Memphis this year before being released by the Cardinals in July.
Young then played 38 games for the Doosan Bears in Korea, hitting .326 with 10 homers, 39 RBIs and a 1.080 OPS.
A left-handed hitter, the 29-year-old Young was born in Canada and selected by the Cubs in the 15th round of the 2017 amateur draft out of Old Dominion in Virginia.
All 12 of his big league starts have come at first base. He has played every position in the minors except catcher and center field.
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Jeff Passan, Senior MLB Insider
Right-hander Tomoyuki Sugano and the Baltimore Orioles have agreed to a contract, the team announced Monday night, uniting one of the most successful Japanese pitchers of his generation with a team in need of rotation help. The deal is for one year and $13 million, sources told ESPN.
The 35-year-old Sugano — a two-time winner of the Sawamura Award, Nippon Professional Baseball’s equivalent of the Cy Young Award — nearly came to Major League Baseball after the Yomiuri Giants posted him in December 2020. He never signed, returned to the Giants and performed almost as well this year as in his Sawamura-winning 2017 and 2018 seasons.
In 24 starts this year, Sugano went 15-3 with a 1.67 ERA. Over 156 ⅔ innings, he struck out 111, walked only 16 and allowed six home runs. Though Sugano’s fastball sits around 92 mph, nearly two-thirds of his pitches this year were off-speed — a mixture of a slider, cutter, curveball and split-fingered fastball.
Baltimore has canvassed the free agent market for pitching this winter, looking to solidify its rotation with Corbin Burnes reaching free agency and right-handers Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells returning from reconstructive elbow surgeries. The Orioles head into 2025 after back-to-back postseason appearances with a rotation that includes Zach Eflin, Grayson Rodriguez, Dean Kremer and now Sugano.
Baltimore’s efforts to re-sign Burnes have not abated, sources said, but the price is expected to land well beyond Chris Davis’ $161 million contract — the largest free agent deal in franchise history. The Orioles were purchased by private equity titan David Rubenstein in August after six consecutive seasons in which the team’s Opening Day payroll ranked 26th or lower among MLB’s 30 teams.
Between Sugano’s deal and the three-year, $49.5 million contract for outfielder Tyler O’Neill, the Orioles’ 2025 payroll is estimated to be around $110 million. The pitching market has proven hot in the early parts of free agency, from the top of the market (Max Fried, $218 million) to the one-year tier (Alex Cobb, $15 million).
Sugano enters his 13th season and will play in a Camden Yards that will be less pitcher-friendly than last season. The Orioles will move the left-field wall, where home runs often went to die, by as much as 20 feet in some places. Sugano has been a heavy groundball pitcher for most of his career and induced 51.1% ground balls this year.
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