BEDMINSTER, N.J. — A very early arrival for Yankees spring training, general manager Brian Cashman spent a lot of time in the last two weeks making calls from his fourth-floor office at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa.
Sometimes he’d step outside to get some fresh air during contract negotiations with baseball’s most powerful agent, Scott Boras.
Cashman mission was a test of patience:
Get to the finish line with free agent outfielder Cody Bellinger at the Yankees’ price while the sides were two years and more than $100 million apart.
In early January, Cashman offered $162.5 million for five years and Boras countered by demanding seven for $266 million even though no one else was even willing to match the Yankees.
As Cashman was trying to talk some sense into Boras, the ballfields outside his office were filled with fantasy camp participants living out dreams playing games dressed as Yankees while being coached by former Yankees.
This year’s guest instructor list included a certain reserve outfielder on the Yankees’ 1999-2001 World Series teams:
Clay Bellinger.
Indeed Cody’s father was out there on the field with Cashman nearby playing hardball with Boras.
“If I had known that Clay was here,” Cashman said Wednesday night while he was a Zoom call-in guest at the Somerset Patriots’ annual winter sponsorship banquet. “I was walking out on the phone making calls to a very important agent. If I knew the dad was sitting on the field right below me, I would have grabbed him and said, ‘Hey, would you sign this?’”
Calling in from Tampa, Cashman was in a great mood.
A few hours earlier, Bellinger took what the Yankees offered more than 2 1/2 weeks ago, five for $162.5 million. Cashman threw in two opt-outs and a full no-trade clause, but this still was a win for the Yankees.
His reaction?
“I didn’t sleep (Tuesday) night,” Cashman said. “There was a lot of effort on our part to try to improve the club.”
The signing won’t become official until Bellinger passes a physical, so Cashman didn’t reveal much else during a 20-minute interview with Yankees radio broadcaster Suzyn Waldman and Patriots play-by-play man Steven Cusumano that could be seen and heard by the 200-plus guests of the Double-A affiliate.
While introducing Cashman, Waldman said, “Can we give a standing ovation to the general manager for what he did today?”
After 20 seconds of standing and cheering, Waldman chimed in again:
“I know the general manager is going to say, ‘Well, we can’t talk about it yet,’ but I’ll talk about it. … As (Yankees pitcher) Max Fried once said to me about Cody Bellinger, ‘He is an All-Star at four positions.’
“The general manager can’t say anything, but Cody Bellinger is back here and I couldn’t be happier.”
Cashman was happy, too. You could tell by his smile.
“I’ve been very vocal all winter and at the end of last season that we’d love to have Cody back,” he said.
Most of Cashman’s Zoom call was a salute to the Patriots, who are heading into their fifth season as a Yankees’ farm club after winning a bunch of championships and frequently packing their ballpark in Bridgewater, N.J., being an independent Atlantic League franchise for 23 seasons.
After COVID killed the 2020 minor-league season, the Yankees’ dumped Trenton as their Double-A affiliate for Somerset. Cashman had been hearing for years how great the Patriots were run by franchise founder Steve Kalafer from prominent Yankees who were friends with the owner/New Jersey car dealer.
Sadly, Kalafer lost a battle with cancer 13 days before the Patriots’ first game as a Yankees’ farm club in May 2021. Almost five years later, the Yankees’ love affair is even stronger with the Patriots, who now are run by Kalafer’s two sons, Jonathan and Josh.
“I started with the Yankees as an intern, and I always heard the buzz about Steve Kalafer and what an amazing difference maker he was,” Cashman said. “So fast forward. We saw this gem of a situation sitting there in Somerset run by this family that I’ve heard number of things about from Joe Torre, Gene Michael …
“Next thing I know, I’m standing there with Steve and his sons, and we do a tour of this amazing facility we’ve seen from afar. The synergy was perfect for us because of the proximity to our ballpark. The facilities were tremendous already and then the willingness for them to pour in and improve upon it … it was an easy decision to make for us and we’ve not looked back. The environment there is spectacular.
“I get calls from the other (Yankees’) affiliates like, ‘Why are you sending the players on rehab to Somerset?’ Well, A, it’s close. B, the facilities are tremendous. And C, a little secret here, our major-league players are saying, ‘I want to go there, if that’s possible,’ No problem. Hopefully Somerset is just as happy as we are with this relationship because it was a match made in heaven.”
Cashman feels the same way about Cody Bellinger and the Yankees. They had a great first season together in 2025 with Bellinger hitting 29 homers, driving in 98 runs and playing excellent defense at all three outfield spots plus a little first base on a team that tied for the most wins in the American League.
This was a Cashman win, too. This time, Boras failed to blow up the cost like he did last winter when the Yankees’ $760 million offer over 16 years wasn’t enough to keep Juan Soto from jumping to the Mets.
“(Cashman) couldn’t talk about (Bellinger signing) obviously,” Waldman told the crowd during after the GM’s Zoom ended. “Just the fact that he beat Scott Boras … Oh, my God! Isn’t that the greatest thing? He just stared him down and stared him down!
“And I just thought when Clay Bellinger showed up to fantasy camp, well (Cody’s) returning. (Clay’s) not going to go to Yankees fantasy camp if his son is going to Toronto, right?”
