{"id":78341,"date":"2024-06-29T08:00:54","date_gmt":"2024-06-29T12:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=78341"},"modified":"2024-06-28T23:37:37","modified_gmt":"2024-06-29T03:37:37","slug":"cubs-could-trade-cody-bellinger-yankees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/06\/29\/cubs-could-trade-cody-bellinger-yankees\/","title":{"rendered":"Cubs Slugger Could Be on Yankees Radar Before Deadline"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Chicago Cubs slugger <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bellico01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-06-29_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cody Bellinger<\/a> has joined the growing list of MLB trade rumors. The trade deadline is just over a month away on July 30. In the coming weeks, more teams will be deciding whether they will buy or sell.<\/p>\n<p>The Cubs entered Friday\u2019s series against the first-place Milwaukee Brewers with a 38-44 record, good for last place in the National League Central, and lost the series opener. The big question in Chicago has been whether the Cubs will be buyers or sellers at the trade deadline. Even at 10 1\/2 games out of first place, the Cubs are still only four games out of a wild card spot in a crowded National League. This has kept hopes alive that the Cubs could still contend for a playoff spot. However, their recent stretch of play has other contending teams starting to smell blood in the water.<\/p>\n<h2>Cubs Could Trade Cody Bellinger Before Deadline<\/h2>\n<h3>Yankees and Rangers Showing Interest<\/h3>\n<p>Two of those teams are the New York Yankees and the Texas Rangers, according to a report from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/5598819\/2024\/06\/28\/mlb-trade-deadline-watch-rays-pitching\/?source=user_shared_article\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Athletic.<\/a> The Yankees were also involved in Bellinger trade rumors last year. With Yankees first-baseman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/rizzoan01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-06-29_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anthony Rizzo<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/06\/17\/yankees-injuries-lefty-slugger-rizzo-dominguez\/\" target=\"_self\">out for months<\/a> with a fractured forearm, Bellinger, who the Cubs just <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/02\/25\/all-star-returning-to-chicago\/\" target=\"_self\">re-signed<\/a> this past offseason, could be a solution at first base for New York. The fact that he can also play all three outfield positions only bolsters his appeal.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Cubs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Cubs<\/a> are currently 38-44 and if they continue to struggle, The Athletic says \u201c[Cody] Bellinger\u2019s name will likely become a much-discussed name again near the deadline\u201d <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7CknUhgrff\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/7CknUhgrff<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 MLB Deadline News (@MLBDeadlineNews) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MLBDeadlineNews\/status\/1806704499869778347?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 28, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Despite the Cubs still being in the wild card race, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/06\/23\/2024-chicago-cubs-going-on\/\" target=\"_self\">their regression<\/a> these past two months casts serious doubt on their chances. After an 18-12 March\/April, the Cubs have gone 20-33 since. The Cubs don\u2019t have many trade chips that would net a big return. Bellinger has the best odds to get some value in return if he is traded. He\u2019s signed for two more years, but he has opt-outs after this season and after the 2025 season. In all likelihood, Bellinger will opt out following this season to seek a long-term deal. The Cubs would be wise to trade him now if they want something in return for his departure.<\/p>\n<p>Bellinger is having a down year compared to last year when he hit .307\/.356\/.525 with 26 home runs and 97 RBI. Currently, he is slashing .271\/.331\/.428 with just nine homers and 34 RBI. While not terrible, this output falls short of Bellinger\u2019s expectations. If Bellinger can get hot at the plate for a few weeks, it could certainly help the Cubs in trade bargaining.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 Katie Stratman-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chicago Cubs slugger Cody Bellinger has joined the growing list of MLB trade rumors. The trade deadline is just over a month away on July 30. In the coming weeks, more teams will be deciding whether they will buy or sell. The Cubs entered Friday\u2019s series against the first-place Milwaukee Brewers with a 38-44 record, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5142,"featured_media":78365,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1071],"tags":[67,899,507,2955,4527,41],"class_list":["post-78341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cubs","category-mlb","tag-anthony-rizzo","tag-cody-bellinger","tag-milwaukee-brewers","tag-mlb-trade-dealine","tag-mlb-trade-rumors","tag-new-york-yankees"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}