The Yankees opened their rematch against the Cleveland Guardians on Monday, playing the AL Central leaders for the fourth time in seven days and evening the head-to-head record by winning in overtime. Cody Bellinger was the MVP of the night, knocking in an early run and then getting two across in extra innings when he singled to left field. That ended up being the difference as the Guardians couldn’t answer in the bottom of the 10th, giving the Yankees a crucial win to start off the series.
Focusing back up on Bellinger, the Yankee outfielder has been invaluable in his second season in pinstripes. He’s collected 2.4 fWAR already, hitting for a 138 wRC+ with nine homers and 41 RBI in 63 games played, on pace to match his 2025 production and prove himself very much worth the contract that the Yankees handed him in free agency this offseason. That contract was the product of much debate back then, but he’s been inarguably one of the key members of the lineup even before Aaron Judge went down with injury. Now he’s the second-best batter in the offense behind the upstart Ben Rice as they look to provide enough for the rotation to stack up some wins in the captain’s absence.
Many people, including myself and several others on staff here, were pushing hard for the Yankees to sign Kyle Tucker in the offseason as a perceived upgrade to Bellinger. That wasn’t a slight to Bellinger’s play here and now so much as it was a concern then about the length of the deal he wanted, and the youth that Tucker had on his side with the history of more consistent production seemingly making him the most valuable pickup available. Well, fast-forward a little more than a third of the way into the season and that narrative has not held up at all — Bellinger’s the one performing as consistently good as he was last season while Tucker has struggled in the first year of his four-year, $240 million mega-deal, hitting just a touch over average with a 104 wRC+ and 0.7 fWAR in 62 games played.
The Dodgers are not hurting for talent or production, so they will likely be fine waiting out Tucker’s struggles in the hopes that he finds his form for the postseason, but if the Yankees were trying to maneuver around those numbers they’d be looking a lot rougher heading into the summer. New York didn’t wind up in the final conversations for Tucker’s services to be fair, but they nearly did lose Bellinger while waiting out his demands and playing around the possibility of wooing Tucker, and had that happened they would have been in dire straights either way. The rest of their options for a free agent pickup weren’t looking enticing, the trade market would’ve been a minefield to negotiate around, and their prospects in Jasson Domínguez and Spencer Jones while contributing now out of necessity weren’t ready for the majors at the start of the year, when one of them would’ve needed to be in the fold.
Where would the Yankees be without Cody Bellinger right now? It’s a very real possibility that it could’ve happened, and the picture doesn’t look pretty — surely a couple steps back of Tampa still chasing for first place, and with an offense that suddenly looks incredibly lean holding back a rotation that’s championship caliber. Thankfully they don’t have to consider that problem in our reality, but what would you have done if the offseason had panned out a little less in their favor? Would there have been a way to salvage their chances this year still?
It’s a quiet day on the site while we wait for the Yankees to get back to it against the Guardians. John checks in on the AL All-Star races for each position’s starters, while Matt covers the Rivalry Roundup amidst a quieter day in the Junior Circuit. Sam gives Bill Virdon some love on his 95th birthday, and Michael goes over the minor league action from the past week on the farm.
Today’s Matchup
New York Yankees vs. Cleveland Guardians
Time: 6:40 p.m. EST
Video: Amazon Prime Video, Guardians.tv, TBS
Venue: Progressive Field, Cleveland, OH
