{"id":393367,"date":"2026-01-05T15:25:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T15:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/393367\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T15:25:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T15:25:08","slug":"mets-have-heavy-competition-in-cody-bellinger-pursuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/393367\/","title":{"rendered":"Mets have heavy competition in Cody Bellinger pursuit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6k\">During a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=74USpuR8hSU\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">December 29 live stream<\/a>, New York Post MLB insider Jon Heyman addressed why the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/mets\/onsi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New York Mets<\/a> haven&#8217;t managed to sign star slugger Cody Bellinger in free agency quite yet. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6n\">&#8220;Are [the Mets] likely to get Bellinger? Wouldn&#8217;t say that. The Yankees still seem somewhat confident that they can land Bellinger,&#8221; Heyman said. He later added, &#8220;Mets&#8217; offensive options other than Bellinger? Well, we know\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/mets\/onsi\/news\/mets-targeting-unexpected-outfielder-after-breakout-season-grant9\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">they&#8217;re looking at Austin Hays<\/a>, as well. Bellinger would be their top choice. Obviously, they haven&#8217;t named the right number of years at this point. That&#8217;s why they don&#8217;t have him.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6q\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/mets\/onsi\/news\/mets-superstar-predicted-to-win-nl-mvp-over-shohei-ohtani-grant9\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read more: Mets superstar predicted to win NL MVP over Shohei Ohtani<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6t\">Heyman also explained that Bellinger is currently looking for a deal that&#8217;s seven years or longer, while the Mets are reportedly most keen to give the 2019 NL MVP a four-year deal. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6w\">While this is what reports were at the end of 2025, a lot can change very quickly regarding a star free agent&#8217;s market. At any point, an unexpected team could come up and make him an offer that&#8217;s superior to any one he had received to that point, which would change things massively. Or one of Bellinger&#8217;s known suitors could pony up and give him an offer he can&#8217;t refuse. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/01ke5v8p0g61znat8zz0.jpg\" alt=\"New York Yankees outfielder Cody Bellinger (35) reacts at second base on October 2, 2025\" title=\"New York Yankees outfielder Cody Bellinger (35) reacts at second base on October 2, 2025\" width=\"1687\" height=\"948\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"75\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Oct 2, 2025; Bronx, New York, USA; New York Yankees outfielder Cody Bellinger (35) reacts at second base after hitting a double in the fourth inning against the Boston Red Sox during game three of the Wildcard round for the 2025 MLB playoffs at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>Mets among many big-market suitors interested in Cody Bellinger<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7c\">One of these known suitors is the Yankees, who appear to be the favorites to sign him this winter. And it was <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/01\/04\/sports\/yankees-have-edward-cabrera-trade-talks-make-new-cody-bellinger-offer\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reported on January 4<\/a> by Joel Sherman of the New York Post that the Yankees have recently given Bellinger a second offer.  <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7f\">What&#8217;s more, the market to sign Bellinger is getting increasingly clearer, as Jon Heyman made<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JonHeyman\/status\/2007945122022052034\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"> an X post<\/a> on January 4 that read, &#8220;Cubs checked in on old friend Cody Bellinger&#8230; The incumbent Yankees remain in talks with Bellinger, their stated No. 1 priority. Mets, Dodgers, Giants are among others showing interest in Bellinger.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">IT&#8217;S A THREE HOME RUN GAME FOR CODY BELLINGER \ud83d\ude24 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/1PL6r4CF9N\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/1PL6r4CF9N<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 MLB (@MLB) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MLB\/status\/1943844573827969439?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">July 12, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7l\">While it&#8217;s good to see that the Mets are still involved with Bellinger, essentially every other big-market team in the league is, as well. The good thing is that the Mets&#8217; pockets are as deep as anyone&#8217;s, and they could match or exceed anyone&#8217;s offer if they decided to.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7o\">But will they decide to? Or will they bow out of the Bellinger chase if the money involved becomes uncomfortable? David Stearns proved a willingness to outspend the Yankees and every other team on Juan Soto last offseason, and he may need to do the same this winter if he wants the Mets to land Bellinger.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7r\">If you like our content,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">choose Sports Illustrated as a preferred source on Google<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Recommended Articles<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During a December 29 live stream, New York Post MLB insider Jon Heyman addressed why the New York&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-393367","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}