With the Yankees in the market for a center fielder, preferably one who hits left-handed, Cody Bellinger is the most obvious solution.
Of course, what makes the 28-year-old former MVP attractive to the Yankees is also what makes them far from his only suitor in free agency.
Plus, there are some questions about Bellinger’s underlying analytics and how they could play out over the course of a long-term deal.
All of that is to say that Bellinger is no lock to be the Yankees’ center fielder next season.
If not him, though, then who?
Kevin Kiermaier and Jung Hoo Lee present two secondary choices to man center field, depending on how the Yankees want to attack their offseason and where they view Jasson Dominguez’s long-term position.
Kiermaier, the defensively gifted veteran who has spent his entire career in the AL East, would provide a shorter-term option.
The lefty-swinging 33-year-old is coming off one of the better offensive seasons of his career, when he hit .265 with a .741 OPS and 14 steals for the Blue Jays.
Kiermaier is expected to receive a raise from the one-year, $9 million deal he played on last season, but would be a strong fit to fill in in center field at least until Dominguez is ready to return from Tommy John surgery (perhaps around midseason).
If the Yankees view Dominguez as their long-term left fielder instead of center fielder, then Lee could be an intriguing addition in center.
The 25-year-old, left-handed hitter is set to be posted by his KBO team in early December, though he may have even more teams chasing him than Bellinger in part because he won’t cost as much.
Lee, the KBO MVP in 2022 who missed time with a fractured ankle this year, is best known for his high-contact, low-strikeout approach — the kind of hitter the Yankees have been lacking recently, outside of DJ LeMahieu.
In 228 games between 2022 and 2023, Lee struck out just 55 times in 1,014 plate appearances (a 5.4 percent strikeout rate) while drawing 115 walks.
The league-wide strikeout rate in the KBO during that same time span was 18.2 percent.
“The component about Lee is bat-to-ball skill, but the real glaring element is the strikeout rate, which is only 5 percent. It’s unheard of,” Scott Boras, Lee’s agent, said last month at the GM meetings. “For him to have power, speed, premium center field [defense] being the athlete he is, but to have that low strikeout rate and strike zone control really has created a lot of interest.”
The Yankees will have to determine how that plate discipline — along with Lee’s power — will translate to MLB.
Some recent players who have come over from the KBO — such as Padres infielder Ha-Seong Kim — have needed some time to adjust to the different pitching in the majors, as Kim struggled in his first season stateside in 2021 before rebounding the last two years.
The plan for Lee was to come to the United States this month and work out at Boras’ training institute for around three weeks.
The superagent planned to hold some workouts to allow teams to see Lee before opening up the signing period.
“Jung Hoo has center-field premiums,” Boras said. “He can play defense and he has power. So I think Jung Hoo’s going to bring K-Pop to the MLB.”
Outside of Bellinger, Kiermaier and Lee, the free-agent center-field market begins to fall off.
Harrison Bader offers strong defense like Kiermaier, but is a right-handed bat who struggled with injuries and underperformance offensively before the Yankees put him on waivers in August.
The Yankees could also look to the trade market to find a center fielder.
They had talked with the Cardinals leading up to the trade deadline about potential deals, with St. Louis having a surplus of outfielders including switch-hitting center fielder Dylan Carlson.
The Cardinals were expected to possibly deal one of their outfielders to acquire starting pitching, though they have already signed three starters in an aggressive approach to free agency.
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