Cody Bellinger has given the Yankees something they were missing for a long stretch: a left fielder who doesn’t force Aaron Boone to start juggling the lineup as soon as October pitching changes begin.
That matters now because New York, sitting at 88-64, has already locked up a postseason spot but still trails the Tampa Bay Rays by five games in the AL East with 10 regular-season games left. The standings still have teeth. So does a lineup that can’t afford a weak link once opponents start matching arms to bats.
The difference from last October is easy to see. In 2024, the Yankees got to the World Series before falling to the Dodgers in five games, but left field never gave them dependable production on either side of the ball. Alex Verdugo finished the regular season at .233/.291/.356 with an 83 OPS+, then hit .208/.309/.313 with a .622 OPS in 14 postseason games.
And that wasn’t just a one-off October issue. Since Brett Gardner’s final Yankees season in 2021, left field had been more stopgap than solution.
FanGraphs positional numbers put Yankees left field at just 1.6 fWAR from 2021 through 2024, 28th in the majors over that stretch. New York spent years looking for stability as much as offense at a premium defensive spot.
This version finally looks different.
Bellinger is the reason.
He went 3-for-5 with a walk, a run and a stolen base Wednesday, and that pushed his recent run even further. He has multiple hits in five of his last seven games. Since returning Aug. 23 from a Grade 2 left hamstring strain, he’s hit .340 with five homers, 18 RBIs and a 148 wRC+ in 23 games.
On the year, Bellinger entered Friday at .276/.351/.444 with 16 homers and 71 RBIs in 125 games.
The Yankees have felt the impact around him, too. Over the first 22 games after his return, they went 15-7, hit .274/.336/.440 as a team, posted a plus-42 run differential and scored at least five runs 14 times.
They reached six runs 12 times and seven runs nine times. Bellinger has been a major part of that push, and he’s done it without giving away value in the field.
Sports Info Solutions has him at 20 Defensive Runs Saved in left field, while Statcast credits him with six Outs Above Average across the outfield. That’s the real swing here: not just a bat that plays, but a glove that holds up. He can also handle center field or first base, which gives Boone more ways to build the roster and survive October matchups.
The Yankees got a reminder of Bellinger’s importance in a 12-2 loss to the Mets on Sept. 12 at Yankee Stadium. He drove in both New York runs with an RBI single in the fourth and a solo homer in the sixth, his third home run in four games at the time.
Boone was talking then about why Mets starter Zac Thornton had the rest of the lineup under control. The point landed hard because Bellinger was the only one doing damage.
“He obviously got a lead there and the strike throwing was really good,” Boone said.
Since then, Bellinger’s September has climbed to .390 over 14 games, with four homers, 12 RBIs and 14 runs. That kind of steadiness has mattered while injuries and matchup-driven moves have kept the rest of the lineup in flux.
The most striking part may be how little his splits change. Through Wednesday, Bellinger had a .797 OPS against left-handed pitching and a .794 OPS against right-handers. That three-point gap is the kind of number managers love in October, because it means one less bat that has to disappear when the bullpen phone starts ringing.
Aaron Judge and Ben Rice are also among the Yankees’ more balanced regular hitters, but Bellinger gives them another piece who can stay in the game without forcing a tradeoff between offense and defense. That’s a big deal when every inning can turn into a chess match.
The Yankees first landed Bellinger from the Cubs in December 2024 for right-hander Cody Poteet, with Chicago also sending $5 million. That price looked light then, and it still does. But the full picture includes the five-year, $162.5 million contract New York gave him in January after he became a free agent.
He backed it up with 29 homers, 98 RBIs and 4.9 fWAR in 2025. FanGraphs now pegs his 2026 value at roughly four fWAR. Using his MLB totals across his two Yankees seasons, he’s at 45 homers, 169 RBIs and a combined line of about .274/.341/.464.
With 10 games left before October, the Yankees still have things to sort out in the AL East race. But at least one problem from last year has been solved. Bellinger has turned left field from a compromise into a strength, and that gives New York a much better postseason starting point than it had in 2024.
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