Good afternoon everyone, it’s time to dive back into the mailbag and answer some of your questions. Remember to send in your questions for our biweekly offseason call by e-mail to pinstripealleyblog [at] gmail [dot] com. torturedsoulv1 asks: Why are a lot of fans not happy with the Bellinger trade? He’s only 29.
You would think he was 35 the way some fans were talking about him. All we gave up was a starter who would not have made the rotation. I think that the hesitation or disappointment from fans mostly stems from the fact that Bellinger has a $25 million salary going into 2025, and the Yankees only got the Cubs to pay out $5 million in the trade to balance that.
Bellinger himself isn’t a bad player, and could turn out to be a solid buy-low candidate by the time his tenure in the Bronx is over, but he carries a fair bit of risk as well and that contract ate up their flexibility to make other deals in the offseason. Had they found a cheaper solution for center field, perhaps they would’ve been more comfortable bidding for Christian Walker for first base or be in the market for a third baseman as opposed to mostly staying quiet there, and plenty of fans saw these areas as bigger concerns. In the end, the Yankees have fashioned a bit more of a balanced lineup than they ran in 2024, but one that also could collapse on the weight of several gambles.
There’s plenty of room for optimists and skeptics alike in a scenario like this. LocalBlueWhaleRuinsEverything asks: Are.