Cody Bellinger, the 2019 National League MVP who has long been linked with the club his father once played for, is finally coming to the Yankees in a trade with the Chicago Cubs.

The Yankees are sending right-handed pitcher Cody Poteet and cash to Chicago. According to YES Network's Jack Curry, the Cubs are sending $5 million.

With Chicago looking to shed some payroll – Bellinger is scheduled to make $27.5 million for the 2025 season and $25 million for 2026 – and the Yanks in need of a left-handed bat that can play first base or in the outfield, a deal made sense.

According to multiple reports, Bellinger has been told he will play center field, which will allow Aaron Judge to move back to right field to lighten his load defensively. Bellinger also fills the void of a left-handed bat in the lineup, something the club needed with Juan Soto departing for Queens.

Of course, this isn't to say Bellinger is close to a replacement for Soto on the lineup. But he’s no slouch and with New York sporting a very righty heavy squad at the moment, fills a need. In 130 games last season, the now 29-year-old had 23 doubles and 18 home runs with 78 RBI with a .266/.325/.426 slash for a .751 OPS (111 OPS+) and 109 wRC+.

Those numbers were down from his first season on the North Side when he bounce-backed into form with 56 extra-base hits (including 26 home runs), 97 RBI and a .307/.356/.525 slash for an .881 OPS (139 OPS+) and 136 wRC+.

An encouraging sign from last season is that Bellinger repeated his feat of producing a lower strikeout rate (15.6 percent in each of the past two campaigns) after that number ballooned to 26.9 percent and 27.3 percent in his final years with Los Angeles. And in Chicago, he has improved his hitting off lefty pitchers with a fantastic .984 OPS against southpaws in 2023 and a respectable .746 OPS in 2024.

Amid trade rumors during the 2023 season, when he was on a one-year deal with Chicago, Bellinger had a memorable home run – reaching the third deck in right field at Yankee Stadium in early July. The Cubs didn’t trade the outfielder then, and signed him to a three-year, $80 million contract in February 2024, two months after the Yanks acquired Soto from San Diego.

Bellinger was the 2017 NL Rookie of the Year and 2019 NL MVP with the Dodgers before he had back-to-back disastrous seasons to close out his time in Los Angeles, batting .193 with a .611 OPS with just 29 homers and 104 RBI over a 239-game stretch in 2021 and 2022.

From his time in LA, Bellinger would be among the Yankees’ most experienced playoff hitters with 267 plate appearances over 69 career games. Of course, his success in the postseason has been up and down with 19 extra-base hits (nine home runs) and a .211 average and .661 OPS. He did, however, have 12 hits in 34 at-bats in the 2021 campaign and socked four home runs and 13 RBI en route to winning the 2020 World Series title.

His father, Clay, played 183 career big league games all but two were with the Yankees from 1999–2022. After making his debut as a 30-year-old, the senior Bellinger appeared in 19 postseason games with New York, winning two rings in the process.

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