The New York Yankees have their Juan Soto replacement — or at least a guy who can take Juan Soto’s spot on the field.

The team traded 2019 NL MVP Cody Bellinger to the Chicago Cubs. it was announced on Tuesdaybet on a talented player getting back on his feet after a difficult few years. The Cubs are also sending $5 million to the Yankees in exchange for right-hander Cody Poteet.

The money will allegedly Covering $2.5 million of Bellinger’s $27.5 million salary in 2025 and $2.5 million of either his 2026 salary or the buyout if he doesn’t exercise his player option. Per Bob Nightengale of USA TodayBellinger has been informed that he will play center field for the Yankees with Aaron Judge moving to right after covering center field for all of 2024.

Bellinger’s father, Clay, was part of the Yankees organization from 1999 to 2001. He will also be working with his wife’s ex, as Chase Carter, the mother of his two children, dated Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton in 2018 and 2019.

Soto’s record-breaking contract with the New York Mets left the Yankees in desperate need of a corner outfielder with enough clout to slide into the middle of the field. Bellinger could fit that bill and was available via trade due to his contract with the Cubs, which gives him player options for 2025 and 2026 that will pay him a total of $52.5 million.

The move ends a two-year tenure for Bellinger with the Cubs, and it’s not a big surprise considering the team was rumored to be hiring him even before Houston Astros star Kyle Tucker took on a similar role in a blockbuster wanted to buy trade. Two years after starting a clean sheet in Chicago, Bellinger will try to restore his glory again with a new team.

Cody Bellinger’s career was chaotic

Bellinger is one of many people for whom 2019 feels like a very long time.

In his third season in the majors, Bellinger was a 23-year-old MVP with the Los Angeles Dodgers and well on his way to signing the mega-deal that young, offensively dominant outfielders love to get. According to Baseball Reference’s calculations, he was worth 8.6 wins above replacement in his 2019 MVP season, a higher number than the career highs of Soto and Tucker.

Then he performed perhaps the most expensive high-five in baseball history.

After Bellinger hit a game-winning home run in Game 7 of the 2020 NLCS, he dislocated his right shoulder while celebrating with Kiké Hernández and was never the same afterward. He struggled with shoulder injuries early in his career, but this required surgery and heralded the worst year of his professional career.

Bellinger was legitimately unplayable in 2021 and only marginally better in 2022 as his momentum continued to fade. Instead of paying him an arbitration salary likely over $17 million, the Dodgers did not tender him and let him hit free agency a year earlier than expected.

The Cubs opted to acquire Bellinger cheaply with a cushion contract and were rewarded with a 2023 season that saw him named the NL Comeback Player of the Year. His shoulder finally appeared to be healthy, or at least he found a way around the problem, hitting .307/.356/.525 for his new team.

Bellinger then decided to test free agency with his value partially restored, but suitors were slow to match his asking price. He was one of four big-name clients of mega-agent Scott Boras whose free agency extended into spring training, and the result was a worse-than-expected three-year, $80 million contract to return to the Cubs.

The deal includes exit options after both the first and second years, so Bellinger was effectively setting himself up for another free agency as soon as he had another good season. That didn’t happen in 2024 as his numbers declined across the board, Bellinger opted into the second year of his contract, and his contract became a bit of a problem for the North Siders.

And so they decided to escape Cody Bellinger’s wild ride by trading him. At 29, Bellinger should theoretically have a few more years to rediscover his swing, but it’s worth wondering how old his shoulder really feels at this point.

What to make of this trade for the Yankees and Cubs?

New York expressed interest in Bellinger early last offseason when he was a much more sought-after commodity on the free-agent market, but the Yankees instead addressed their outfield needs by acquiring Juan Soto and Alex Verdugo via trade in December. That eliminated an obvious suitor for Bellinger and ultimately paved the way for him to return to the Cubs on a three-year, $80 million contract that didn’t materialize until late February.

A year later, Bellinger once again emerged as a logical target for New York, this time via trade — especially after Soto made his monumental decision to leave the Yankees’ outfield in favor of a historic contract with the Mets. Until Tuesday, the Yankees had responded to Soto’s departure by adding more punch to the mound rather than trying to replace Soto’s contributions in the lineup. First up was left-hander Max Fried, who signed an eight-year, $218 million contract – the largest contract ever for a southpaw – to join the Yankees’ rotation. Brian Cashman and Co. followed suit by acquiring closer Devin Williams from Milwaukee to significantly strengthen the bullpen.

At some point, however, New York had to start rebuilding its offense. It wasn’t just Soto’s massive presence that the Yankees needed to replace: left fielder Alex Verdugo, second baseman Gleyber Torres and first baseman Anthony Rizzo were all 2024 starters heading into free agency, and none of them seemed like one to have planned a return. There was no shortage of spots on New York’s roster, but Bellinger’s addition is a solid first step.

On the other hand, there’s no hiding what the Cubs were trying to accomplish here. Poteet was solid in Triple-A and a few big league appearances for New York in 2024 and should help make up for some of the pitching depth lost by Chicago’s Hayden Wesneski to Houston in the Tucker deal. But this trade was about lowering Bellinger’s salary, and for a big-market franchise that hasn’t won a playoff game since 2017, that should be answered with just one question: OK, now what?

Teams in Chicago’s position should only make such trades if it allows them to take additional steps to improve their roster. Tucker was definitely a huge acquisition. He is clearly an improvement over Bellinger, who no longer fits into the squad. But after several seasons of mediocrity, the Cubs need to keep pushing forward. If paying off the more than $20 million owed to Bellinger this season opens the door to additional spending in free agency or acquiring high-paid impact players via trade, that’s great news for the North Side. Until those moves happen, however, it will be difficult to classify this trade as anything other than what it is: a pay cut.