{"id":404049,"date":"2026-01-13T03:35:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T03:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/404049\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T03:35:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T03:35:07","slug":"yankees-open-to-including-opt-outs-in-bellinger-offer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/404049\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees Open To Including Opt-Outs In Bellinger Offer"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Yankees reportedly have a five-year offer at more than $30MM annually on the table to\u00a0Cody Bellinger<\/a>. ESPN\u2019s Buster Olney<\/a> nevertheless wrote over the weekend that New York was preparing for the possibility that the outfielder could head elsewhere, potentially on a six-plus year contract.<\/p>\n

Brendan Kuty of The Athletic<\/a> added a few specifics on the Yankees\u2019 position in a report this evening. Kuty writes that the five-year proposal came with a \u201ctrue\u201d $31-32MM average annual value, as it did not include any deferred money. He adds that the Yankees are willing to discuss opt-out possibilities as well, though it\u2019s not known if their most recent offer actually included such a clause. Jon Heyman of The New York Post<\/a> similarly suggested that some kind of opt-out was a possibility.<\/p>\n

Contract length appears to be the significant stumbling block. Bellinger\u2019s camp at the Boras Corporation is reportedly looking for a seven-year guarantee. Olney suggested over the weekend that he also wanted more than the Yankees were offering on an annual basis, yet the extra year or two seems the bigger hurdle. Bellinger is entering his age-30 season (though he turns 31 in July, less than two weeks after the unofficial July 1 cutoff for a player\u2019s seasonal age).<\/p>\n

As shown on MLBTR\u2019s Contract Tracker<\/a> for Front Office subscribers, Brandon Nimmo<\/a> signed the most recent six-plus year free agent deal for a hitter in his 30s. That eight-year pact was one of four such contracts over the 2022-23 offseason, but there hasn\u2019t been one within the last two offseasons. Alex Bregman<\/a> rejected a six-year offer from Detroit last winter in advance of his age-31 campaign. Bregman went on to agree to a five-year deal last week that\u2019ll run through age-36, the same age at which a seven-year deal for Bellinger would conclude. Kyle Schwarber<\/a> signed a five-year contract covering ages 33-37 last month.<\/p>\n

Bellinger went short term with opt-outs during his last free agent trip. He signed a three-year, $80MM guarantee with outs after each of the first two seasons. After foregoing the first opportunity, he returned to the market on the heels of a .272\/.334\/.480 season in the Bronx. He\u2019s unattached to a qualifying offer this time around and already seems assured of a much more lucrative guarantee than he commanded on his previous free agent deal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Yankees reportedly have a five-year offer at more than $30MM annually on the table to\u00a0Cody Bellinger. ESPN\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[4711,363,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-404049","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-cody-bellinger","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}