Earlier this week, the Cubs and Yankees made a significant trade, with Chicago sending CF/1B Cody Bellinger and $5 million in cash to New York in exchange for reliever Cody Poteet. Much of the fan reaction was one of “is that all?”, stunned that the Yanks were able to acquire a first-line player for such a modest price. With all due respect to Poteet, he had little to do with the effectiveness of this deal from the Yankees’ perspective. Fans often forget that when you get a player, you get his contract and the years of control that follow. If you get a player worth $20 million, don’t trade any players, and you have to pay him twice that amount, you’re going to lose money. Fans may say you got that player for nothing, but in reality you got him for $40 million. Not a great way to do business.

Cody Bellinger Bronx Belli Bomb Hoodie

The Yankees clearly fell short of their goals in the recent Juan Soto Award, and thus had to spend money and fill in the holes. They have moved toward adding multiple players instead of just one Soto, and have added free agent starter Max Fried and acquired starter Devin Williams in a trade with the Brewers that left them with a player loss starter Nestor Cortes and prospect Caleb Durbin. So some of Soto’s money has been spent but there are still holes in the first and second base positions in addition to the currently open outfield position.