It was a Friday night in the Bronx. Trent Grisham just got thrown out at the plate trying to tie the game up.  Ben Rice still stands on second.  Next up to bat is Paul Goldschmidt.  What do the Los Angeles Dodgers do?  They intentionally walk him to get to the next hitter.  Austin Wells, right?  Nope, they put the lead runner on to face a guy the Yankees inked to a 5-year, 162.5 million dollar contract in the offseason, Cody Bellinger.  If you haven’t asked already, that was the time to say, is Cody Bellinger worth the contract?  The easy answer is no, and there will be four more seasons with this question.

Fans love Cody Bellinger

 This is only his second season in pinstripes, but fans view him as one of their own and a legend (perhaps it’s because his dad played for the Yankees).  He had a solid first season with the Yankees (.272/.334/.480).  He is a great defender and an above-average hitter.  He was a solid middle of the lineup bat in that first season.  Then he became a free agent.  While there were other teams interested in him, it was hard not to think the Yankees weren’t competing against themselves for his services.  And his 2026 season started off a little slow, but in May he picked it up with a .304/.415/.578 slash line.  I even heard some Yankees fans suggest he should get MVP votes due to his solid slash line and his glove work.  That month and his good start got him into the All-Star Game, where he was chosen the MVP.  The accolades continued for him on the broadcast of the first game back from the break.

But the Stats don’t back it up

Bellinger is getting the love from the fans and the media, but his overall performance has been nothing but average.  He has a .255/.344/.419 slash line, which is above average, but mainly due to his ability to draw walks.  He has 11 home runs and 51 RBIs from a middle-of-the-order bat, which is a little less production than you want to see.  So slightly above-average production from a guy who is one of the Top 10 paid hitters in baseball.  

With Judge out, he has disappeared

Bellinger has struggled on the road all season, .197/.295/.283, but since Aaron Judge got hurt, that isn’t far away from his slash line.  Since June 1st, Bellinger is 32 for 141 with 3 home runs and 13 RBIs.  That is clearly not enough production for a middle of the order bat.  Perhaps more concerning is that with Judge healthy, he had 38 walks and 33 strikeouts.  Since Judge got hurt, 13 walks to 29 strikeouts.  He is just not the same hitter.  Perhaps it’s the pressure of the contract.  Maybe it’s just because he is not the guy.

I wrote a piece about how signing Bellinger was like signing DJ LeMahieu.  The Yankees were overpaying for a guy other teams didn’t value who the fans had grown to love.  That contract was an abject failure.  Alas, this is Year 1 of the Bellinger contract, and the results are not what fans hoped for.  When you look at his statistics, he is a slightly above-average hitter (with a lot of that due to having Judge in the lineup), but he is paid to be the best hitter on the team; he is not.  Even with the Yankee lineup depleted, this is Ben’s Rice’s team and not Bellinger’s.  Heck, even the Dodgers recognize that he is the one you want to face with the game on the line.  That is a damning indictment for the “All-Star MVP.”