All the Bellinger news fit to print; Pettitte’s Hall of Fame support grows; four Yankees are BA top prospects
FanGraphs | Ben Clemens: By now I’m sure you know that Cody Bellinger is staying in the Bronx, with a cool five-year, $162.5 million deal. The reunion with the Yankees felt near-inevitable with, with such a glaring hole in the club’s construction and Bellinger unable to get someone to stretch his deal out to six or seven years. The Yankees retain a strong floor for 2026, even if the ceiling of the team is up for debate.
New York Daily News | Peter Sblendorio: For more details on the Bellinger deal, look no further. It’s far from a standard MLB deal, with a pair of opt outs and a $20 million signing bonus that works as essentially an insurance policy should we see baseball games lost to 2027 labor strife. Bellinger’s now the third-highest paid Yankee, and the appropriate pressure will no doubt be felt. For the team, the estimated total payroll for 2026 is now $317 million, the third-highest in baseball after the Dodgers and Mets (whose payroll rose again at least a bit after trading for Freddy Peralta), or about $10 million more adjusted for inflation than the 2009 championship team’s player expenses.
New York Daily News | Gary Phillips: In other news, Andy Pettitte saw his Hall of Fame vote share jump significantly this time around, his eighth time on the ballot. The longtime Yankee lefty received votes on 48.5 percent of submissions, the fourth-highest vote total behind inductees Carlos Beltrán and Andruw Jones, as well as Chase Utley. This represents a 20-point jump over Andy’s 2024 vote count, and with two more years of eligibility remaining, there’s still a real chance the five-time World Series champion sees himself in Cooperstown.
Baseball America: BA is out with their top 100 prospect list, considered by many to be the most reliable compendium of future MLB stars. Four Yankees find themselves in the rankings, with George Lombard Jr. atop the team’s table at No. 46 overall. Elmer Rodriguez, who we will likely see with the big league club at some point in 2026, is ranked 59th, with 2025 first-rounder Dax Kilby at 61st, and right-hander Carlos Lagrange just making the cut at 96.
Category: General Sports
