Cody Bellinger is back in Pinstripes--now what?

 Cody Bellinger returns to the Bronx and resigns with the New York Yankees. Brian Cashman and the Yankee front office has officially returned the 2025 New York Yankees. Kind of. A team that didn’t win the division and lost in five games in the Divisional Round of the playoffs to the Toronto Blue Jays.

While Yankees fans should celebrate this signing—they also need to continue to pressure Brian Cashman to make a few more moves to improve this roster. Every other team in the division has gotten better. All the Bombers have done is return most of the 2025 roster. They are also operating in a frame of mind that the plan for 2026 pitching staff won’t have any kinks in it. And just in case you aren’t aware of the plan: hope that Carlos Rodon is ready in early May from surgery on a bone spur in his throwing elbow, Gerrit Cole being ready to go in June from Tommy John recovery, and Clarke Schmidt back from Tommy John in September. Two of the three best Yankees roster are recovering from major surgery. Brian Cashman needs to add another starting pitcher. Getting Ryan Weathers and that’s it, isn’t good enough to compete in the American League East in 2026. Asking Luis Gil, Cam Schlittler, Will Warren, and Ryan Yarbrough to be the best version of themselves and stay healthy is a big ask. Max Fried is an ace and will post, but that’s the only true known on the current pitching staff.

Offensively, the regular positional players are almost set in stone with Bellinger returning. However, there are questions all over the bench. Anthony Volpe will not be ready for Opening Day, likely out until May at the earliest. That means Jose Caballero is the Opening Day shortstop. Oswaldo Cabrera will be back and will play a big part of the lineup construction in the early part of 2026, but he’s only one player. He can only do so much and the majority of that will be in the infield. But he will also play some outfield. That leads us to our next question mark on the Bomber bench.

Where does that leave the Martian? The Yankees seemingly don’t believe in Jasson Dominguez as a major piece and is a floating fourth outfielder, so Cabrera will take some of Domginuez’s at-bats. So, are they going to trade him and sign someone else? Or are they going to finally give Jasson Dominguez a chance to find himself at the big-league level? And what is the plan behind the plate?

In 2025, the Yankees had a catching problem. Every catcher the Bombers put behind the dish couldn’t throw out baserunners. Austin Wells threw out just three of 20 base stealers. J.C. Escarra caught just one of 20 runners. Ben Rice caught three of 21 base stealers. That’s a combined seven of 61. That’s eight percent.  That needs to change and fast. Also, all three of the backstops are left-handed. If Ben Rice is the full time first baseman, that solves part of the problem, but to not have the platoon advantage is very un-Yankee like. Whether that is through trade or in the open market—it must be addressed before the Yankees open pitchers and catchers in three weeks from Thursday.

Then, we get to the bullpen. The back end of the pen is set with David Bednar and Camilo Doval are the closer and 8th inning guy respectively. But after that? A ginormous question mark. Fernando Cruz had a tremendous year last year but will turn 36 at the start of the season. He dealt with arm issues after a heavy workload as one of the only reliable options in 2025. Jake Bird, who was acquired along with Ryan McMahon had a 6.32 ERA and walked 12 batters in 15.2 innings at the Yankees Triple-A affiliate Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Yerry De los Santos was a mop-up guy for the Bombers in 2025. Brent Headrick only had a cup of coffee with the big-league club in 2025. Dom Hamel who was just claimed from the Texas Rangers, was in a hybrid role with the Mets Triple-A affiliate Syracuse and had a 5.32 ERA in 67.2 innings. The rest of the 40-man is unproven minor leaguers. Since Aaron Boone and pitching coach Matt Blake have arrived in the Bronx, they’ve made bullpens seemingly out of nothing. They can very well do again, but the Yankees have a lot of innings to cover and not a lot of proven arms to get those outs.

With the signing of Cody Bellinger, the Yankees are over $320 Million, and Hal Steinbrenner already said this offseason that he wants to keep under that number. So, if the Yankees are already over the owners own salary cap, why not go even further? The Yankees are the 4th most expensive roster for the 2026 season. The Dodgers are spending $411 plus Million in first. The Mets are second spending $385 plus Million. Philadelphia is third in Major League Baseball at $325 plus Million. And then the Yankees at $324 plus Million.

Somehow the fans around Yankee universe are convinced the Yankees are “running it back” with the 2025 Yankees playoff roster. They are and they aren’t. Majority of the regulars are the same. But the margins of the team—which is extremely important for a championship roster—are not. Because of injuries, it’s slightly worse. And while Hal Steinbrenner is anything but cheap, he will have to continue to keep writing checks in order for the 2026 Yankees to try to win World Series number 28.