Quick Perspectives

By Paul Semendinger

January 22, 2026

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The Yankees finally woke up from their slumber and made a big move. Bringing back Cody Bellinger makes sense. It is a good move. It's not a great move. This wasn't a franchise changing move that will make the Yankees great. Instead it was a good move, a nice move, and a necessary move. The Yankees without Bellinger would have been a second-division club.

It wasn't a move that was necessary because Bellinger is great or because Bellinger was the best player out there. It's because the Yankees needed to get a good player, and, after sleeping through the winter, by the time they were ready and/or able to make a move, Bellinger was the last good player they could sign.

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The Yankees are essentially bringing back the 2025 Yankees for 2026.

As I recall, the 2025 Yankees went through a long swoon last year. Yes, they finished with the best record in the league, sort of. But they proved inferior against better competition in the postseason.

The Yankees haven't improved that 2025 team.

They're bringing the same crew back, with the hopes that the players that had career years (among them Rice, Grisham, and Chisholm) maintain that level of excellence, with the hope that the large collection of injured pitchers return and are actually good, and with the hope that players who have vastly under-performed (among them Wells, Volpe, and Weathers) can somehow reach their potential.

The other big hope is that Aaron Judge has another legendary season. If Judge is only somewhat great, not all-time level great, as he has been, the Yankees will most likely take a huge step backwards.

It is tough to go into a season hoping that the team's greatest player be better than great.

Willie Mays played at a legendary level from 1963-65 (among other years, of course, but let's just focus on those). His OPS+ was 175 in 1963, 172 in 1964 (led the NL), and 185 in 1965 (led MLB). In 1966, while he was still great, he wasn't legendary. In 1966, Mays' OPS+ was 149. In 1967, his OPS+ dropped to 124. Mays still had some 140+ OPS+ seasons in his future. He wasn't "done" in 1967. He was still great, but he wasn't having all-time great seasons any longer.

The Yankees need Aaron Judge to have another all-time great level season. He has has an OPS+ over 200 in three of the last four seasons. Expecting a player to be that great is asking an awful lot.

I also don't believe that playing in the WBC helps Judge in that regard. I have no stats to prove my feeling. This is just a gut thing. I'm simply basing my feeling on the fact that he'll be playing big time games earlier than he normally would and the fact that players, even great ones, eventually tire out. I hope Judge stays strong, again. The Yankees need Judge to be great through October after he starts up earlier than normal. (He usually doesn't finish all that strongly either...)

The Yankees are hoping this all occurs with a manager and coaching staff that fair-minded fans have to admit, at best, is not strong and that many feel is a weak collection of leaders. Fundamentals hasn't exactly been a strong suit of the team, for example.

None of this, to me, inspires great confidence for a World Series championship, which, for the Yankees, should always be the goal.

Will the Yankees be good in 2026? Of course. They're always good. That's what they bank on - being good. They don't bank on being great.

The Yankees bank on the fans getting excited about the moves they make, talking about their "success" last year, and going out and spending money to support this team.

The Yankees certainly did not build a team to compete to be the best in baseball. Again, as they have done every season for a long time, they're building a team to be good with the hopes that everything falls into place.

Many fans are still frustrated because this never used to be the Yankees approach.

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Two years before the Yankees acquired Cody Bellinger, I was calling for them to sign him. I am glad he's a Yankee. I was glad last year, too.

But Bellinger is not a difference maker. He's a very good player who can play a number of positions very well. It also seems like his two bad years are well behind him. Bellinger is an important part of a championship-level squad.

It seems the Yankees will need him to better than the player he is in order for the team to truly compete for a championship.

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Some fans are outraged that Carlos Beltran was elected to the Hall of Fame. I get it, he cheated.

I have made the point plenty of times before, the 1951 Giants cheated, in pretty much the same manner as the Astros. Leo Durocher, Monte Irvin, and Willie Mays were on that team. Each of them is in the Hall of Fame.

The list of baseball cheaters is very very long. Beltran is the latest in a long line of players who cheated.

Are some Yankees fans outraged? Sure. This is because Beltran's cheating hurt the Yankees.

Let's also remember that the Yankees, themselves, while at a lesser-scale, also were involved in some type of cheating scandal at the same time. It wasn't as if the Yankees didn't seek their own not-so-pure advantages in that time period.

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The fan in me, the one who wants to always hope the Yankees are the biggest players, and will be the best team, is still hoping (against all reason) that Brian Cashman has some big moves he's working on to make the 2026 great.

I can always hope...

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Let's Go Yankees!