New York Yankees longtime general manager Brian Cashman has made no secret of his strong desire to re-sign free agent outfielder Cody Bellinger, who opted out of his contract after a single year in the Bronx â and who in one recent expert projection from ESPN.com is expected to get a six-year, $180 million contract. The sports business site Spotrac has Bellinger doing even better, nabbing a $183 million deal over six seasons.
A recent report by a writer for the financial site Forbes said that Bellinger’s demands had risen to âan eight-year deal worth $400 million.â
That seemed like a lot for an outfielder who managed a very respectable but not exactly eye-popping .813 OPS this year, pretty much in line with his career OPS of .817.
Bellinger’s Price on the Rise, Apparently
Perhaps not surprisingly, the Forbes writer retracted his report. But industry insiders appeared to suspect that the figure had come from Bellinger’s agent, Scott Boras, perhaps as a negotiating ploy but nonetheless indicating that Bellinger will be extremely expensive to sign for the Yankees â or any other team.
Around the same time, reports emerged that the Yankees were already developing a âbackup planâ in the increasingly likely event that they could not re-sign Bellinger â former Cincinnati Reds outfielder Austin Hays, also now a free agent.
âCashman appears to hold the winning hand against Boras in this high-stakes poker game,â wrote Esteban Quiñones of Pinstripes Nation. âThe general manager knows the market is sinking. He is content to wait.â
Seemingly Forgotten OF Prospect on Rise
Even as the Yankeesâ plans to bring Bellinger back to the Bronx appear to fade, a little-known prospect in the New York system has emerged as a contender for the wayward free agentâs outfield spot â possibly as soon as sometime in 2026, but if not, shortly after. In November, Baseball America named 22-year-old Dillon Lewis as the Yankeesâ top âbreakout MLB prospectâ for 2026.
But amid such highly anticipated New York position-player prospects as shortstop George Lombard Jr., outfielder Spencer Jones and 2025 first-round draft pick Dax Kilby â ranked Nos. 1, 4 and 7 in the Yankees system, respectively, by MLB Pipeline â who is Dillon Lewis?
A 13th-round draft pick in 2024 out of obscure Queens University of Charlotte in North Carolina â a school that has produced only two other MLB draft picks, neither higher than the 10th round â Lewis quickly rose to become the No. 16 Yankees prospect, per Pipeline.
One of Yankeesâ âMost Tooled Upâ Prospects
Called âamong the most tooled-up players in the organizationâ by Baseball America, and a âdraft stealâ with âpower making wavesâ by Yanks Go Yard scribe Adam Weinrib, the previously unheralded Lewis exploded with 22 home runs in 465 at-bats divided between the Single-A and High-A levels in 2025.
But even more importantly, as recounted by Stephen Parello of Yanks Go Yard, Lewis cut his strikeout rate from 28.2 percent in Single-A to 20.8 percent in High-A while also increasing his walk rate from 9.2 percent to 10.8 percent. That was not a fluke, but rather seemed to be the result of a concerted effort.
Will Lewis be ready to take over in the Yankee Stadium outfield next season? That seems like a long shot at this point. MLB Pipeline projects his arrival in 2028.
But according to Weinrib, Lewis âfits the mold prized by the current Yankees and could certainly have a role on this club if his progress continues (while the old guard ages and departs).â
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