Longtime baseball writer Barry Bloom reported this week that Cody Bellinger is seeking an eight-year deal worth $400 million, with Kyle Tucker looking for a similar contract. Bloom has since walked back his reporting after receiving a phone call from agent Scott Boras, who called the report “nonsense” and asked that he retract it.
And Bloom did, sort of.
“Scott Boras said my report about Bellinger asking for $400m was ‘nonsense’ and asked me to retract it,” Bloom wrote on X. “In immense respect to him and our decades-long relationship, and despite my very credible source, consider it retracted. He didn’t give me a replacement figure.”
When Bloom asked Boras directly about the actual term and dollars Bellinger is seeking, Boras didn’t answer. But Bloom provided more context about where the $400 million figure from his reporting came from, even though it had nothing to do with the article he attached it to.
“To be clear, a highly placed source who I also have immense respect for evidently wanted those figures out there,” Bloom wrote. “They’re trying to force the market. I’m now giving you both sides. You decide.”
The $400 million figure doesn’t match what anyone else has reported about Bellinger’s market. Most projections have him around $165-180 million over six years. He’s 30 years old and coming off a strong season with the Yankees, but he’s not in Juan Soto or Shohei Ohtani territory.
YES Network’s Jack Curry reported that nobody has come close to meeting Boras’ demands for Bellinger. The Yankees have interest in bringing him back, but clearly, there’s a gap between what Boras wants and what teams are willing to offer.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.