When the New York Yankees completed their offseason trade for Cody Bellinger, they knew they’d soon be at a crossroads at the conclusion of 2025. Bellinger, who once looked like one of the faces of the sport after winning the NL Rookie of the Year back in 2017 and capturing the NL MVP after crushing 47 long balls in 2019, has had quite the strange baseball journey.

After injuries and plummeting performance, the once-promising star was unceremoniously non-tendered by the Los Angeles Dodgers, only to be picked up by the Chicago Cubs and post a 2023 campaign that neared the lofty heights of his early-career performance. A good-but-not great follow-up in 2024 led to him being a mere salary dump by the Cubs, bringing him to New York to join the club with whom his father won a World Series.

With all of that, he entered the year with a strange proposition: accept his $25 million player option for 2026 or opt out and test the open market. His decision was likely to hinge on which version of the Jekyll-and-Hyde OF/1B took the field in the Bronx. While no one will mistake Bellinger for an MVP candidate this year, his play has largely been stellar (and certainly good enough to fetch a lucrative long-term deal, as one MLB Insider suggests).

MLB Insider suggests that Yankees star Cody Bellinger could make a dramatic cross-town move in the offseason

The New York Post’s Jon Heyman suggests that Cody Bellinger’s performance this year will likely lead to him opting out, igniting yet another bidding war between the financial Goliaths in the Bronx and Queens.

“The Yankees want to keep Cody Bellinger, who’ll surely opt out with $25M to go for 2026, and he’s said to love it in pinstripes. But word is, the Mets also like Bellinger.” Heyman would also add, “Mets execs prioritize defense and versatility, and Bellinger is above average at four positions.”

That last point is a crucial one. After stealing Juan Soto away from the Yankees this past offseason, the Mets have learned firsthand how important it is to have a stellar defensive center fielder by his side. Center field has been a problem area in Queens all season, with the glove-first Tyrone Taylor struggling to produce any semblance of offense, forcing the Mets to trade for Cedric Mullins at the deadline. Mullins, though a player with name recognition, has struggled on both sides of the ball this year and is a free-agent-to-be as well.

The Mets also might have another opening to fill. After a tense standoff with their own homegrown star, Pete Alonso, the Mets were the last to blink, strong-arming their fan favorite into an opt-out-laden deal. Alonso’s exceptional bounce back in 2025 has made it a near-certainty that he will opt out, this time likely finding a much hotter market for his services.

That all means the Mets could not only look at Bellinger as an option to stabilize center field with a reliable two-way contributor, but they could also look at him as a possible Alonso replacement.

That raises the question as to whether or not the Yankees will rise to meet the price tag the Mets likely set for Bellinger. Bellinger’s preference might be to stay with the Yankees, but at the end of the day, it’s unclear how big of a factor money will play.

Meanwhile, the Yankees will have another free-agent center fielder to worry about with 2025 breakout sensation Trent Grisham. Grish appears to be the odd man out, with Bellinger likely being the Bombers’ preference and the impending arrival of top prospect Spencer Jones. But if the Mets manage to steal away another prized Yankee outfielder, he could come back into play as a cheaper pivot, thanks in large part to his much shorter track record of performance.

There’s a lot of baseball still to be played, but this offseason is shaping up to feature yet another inter-borough bidding war in the Big Apple.