Bellinger returns to New York

AMERICAN LEAGUE

New York Yankees
NEWS: The Yankees have re-signed OF Cody Bellinger to a five-year, $162.5 million contract.
IMPACT: High
BHQ SPIN: The on-again, off-again courtship of Bellinger ended in a reunion, which should see Bellinger serve as New York’s primary left fielder with occasional appearances at the other outfield positions and perhaps first base as well. For anyone who rostered Bellinger in an early draft, this is the result they were hoping for, as Bellinger made good use of his left-handed-hitter-friendly home park last year (18 HR, .909 OPS vs. 11 HR, .715 OPS on road). As long as everyone is healthy, Bellinger’s return leaves OF Jasson Domínguez without a position, as the team does not consider him an alternative to OF Trent Grisham in center, and all of Bellinger, RF Aaron Judge and DH Giancarlo Stanton are expected to play most days. Speculation is rampant that New York could try to use Domínguez as a trade chip, though one of its primary targets, RHP Freddy Peralta, is no longer available, having been dealt to the Yankees’ crosstown rival.
–Olson

Chicago White Sox
NEWS: Chicago acquired IF Luisangel Acuña and a minor-league pitcher from the Mets for OF Luis Robert Jr. 
IMPACT: High
BHQ SPIN: The long-rumored trade of Robert comes to fruition and leaves a hole in CF. At least temporarily, we’ve filled that with Acuña, who came up as a middle infielder but has played a few games in the outfield at the MLB level. He has the speed and athleticism to fit there in theory; whether he lines up there Opening Day for the Sox is to be determined. Even if not, he should get a solid amount of playing time in 2026 with the Sox, as he has the ability to move all around the infield. There could be more moves coming of course, but how/where Acuña fits into the playing-time picture will be watched closely in spring training games.
–Hershey

Los Angeles Angels
NEWS: The club signed 3B Yoàn Moncada to a one-year contract.
IMPACT: Medium 
BHQ SPIN: Bringing Moncada back on a low-money deal ($5M) makes sense for the Angels, who before this had Oswald Peraza and 2B Christian Moore listed as their 3B starters. Moncada’s story recently has been the inability to stay healthy; when he’s on the field, the Statcast metrics are favorable (BBc QBaB; 14% Brl% in a limited sample in 2025), even though some of the other metrics are not so rosy (sub-70% ct%). We’ll slot him a low-end starter’s share of PT for now.
–Hershey

 

NATIONAL LEAGUE

New York Mets
NEWS: The Mets acquired Freddy Peralta and Tobias Myers from the Brewers in exchange for prospects Brandon Sproat and Jett Williams. Separately, they acquired center fielder Luis Robert Jr. from the White Sox in exchange for Luisangel Acuña and a minor league pitcher.
IMPACT: High
BHQ SPIN: Peralta is expected to step in as the Mets’ #1 starter. His arrival results in small playing time reductions for a number of Mets pitchers including Christian Scott, Jonah Tong, and Kodai Senga. Myers was used as both a starter and reliever last season. With the Mets, he’s likely to be used primarily, if not exclusively, in middle relief. As such, his fantasy value is likely to be minimal.

Robert is expected to play regularly, but in light of the fact that he’s spent a month or more on the IL in four of the last five seasons, we’re only projecting him to play 75% of the time. We’ve made no major playing time changes for other Mets outfielders, since we had anticipated the Mets would be adding at least one outfielder. Nevertheless, we made small reductions in the playing time projections for Carson Benge and Tyrone Taylor.
–Hertz

Milwaukee Brewers
NEWS: Milwaukee traded RHP Freddy Peralta and RHP Tobias Myers to the New York Mets in exchange for OF Jett Williams and RHP Brandon Sproat.
IMPACT: High
BHQ SPIN: With Peralta in the final year of his contract, a trade was possible and perhaps probable with how the Brewers have dealt their top players in recent years. The Brewers have good depth in the starting pitcher ranks and RHP Brandon Woodruff, RHP Jacob Misiorowski, RHP Quinn Priester will lead the rotation. It would now seem that there will be two spots for the newly acquired Sproat, RHP Chad Patrick, LHP Robert Gasser and RHP Logan Henderson. Henderson and Patrick tentatively have spots, but offseason development and spring training will likely decide the back of the rotation. 

Williams fits the recent mold that the Brewers have looked for on the offensive side, with above average defense at multiple positions up the middle and a mix of power and speed. We are currently projecting Williams for 30% of playing time at this time, but with the oft-injured Garrett Mitchell in front of him on the depth chart, he does have a path to playing time. We’ve reduced playing time slightly for Garrett Mitchell and Blake Perkins to make room for Williams.
–Davison

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