The Yankees are on a brutal skid. After suffering series losses against the Marlins and the Rangers, they’ve now stumbled to a third consecutive series defeat, this time against the Astros, marking a significant low for the season. Once again, the bullpen cracked, the defense wobbled, and the late innings turned into a nightmare. The culprit? Yankees’ $80 million star Cody Bellinger.

Bellinger, who has been dependable at times this year, landed in the spotlight for the wrong reason this time after mishandling a low ball in the final inning. The error allowed Jose Altuve to take an extra base, highlighting the Yankees’ defensive frailty.

But as the Yankees suffered yet another collapse, the conversation took a turn. An old clip of Bellinger—then a Dodger—openly condemning the Astros’ infamous 2017 sign-stealing scandal suddenly came to the fore. On the surface, it was just another retro baseball soundbite. But this one carried a Yankee-flavored irony too rich for the internet to ignore.

“I think what people don’t realize is Altuve stole an MVP from Judge in 2017. Everyone knows they stole the ring from us….I don’t know what human hits a walk-off home run against Aroldis Chapman to send your team to the World Series, and, one, has the thought to say, ‘don’t rip my jersey off,’ but, two, go into the tunnel, change your shirt, and then come out and do your interview. That makes no sense to me,” Bellinger can be heard saying in the old clip, which resurfaced ahead of the Yankees-Astros series.

Now, the stage was set for a revenge-fueled showdown, with the expectation that Bellinger’s frustrations would translate into a dominant Yankees performance. Yet, the intense buildup led nowhere, as the Yankees were unable to land the decisive blow against the Astros. And to make it worse, Bellinger had a facepalm moment. That, too, against Altuve! Enough for the fans to get onto a trolling spree.

Fans are calling out Cody Bellinger

The ugly fielding blunder by Bellinger couldn’t come at a worse time, just when his rant against Altuve and the Astros resurfaced. “Revenge tour,” wrote a fan sarcastically. Imagine your rant against someone resurfaces, and on the field, you falter against the same player. Bellinger just faced the same scenario.

One of the fans couldn’t believe Bellinger had such a brutal go at Altuve: “Is this real or AI? Because I got the other day off, what I thought was an interview lmao.” The Astros’ 2017 sign-stealing event was true and proven. However, the accusation against Altuve of wearing buzzers under the jersey is yet to be proven. So, Bellinger’s comment was a bit brutal.

“How’s that revenge tour going?” another fan chimed in, after the Yanks took a 1-7 drubbing in the last game and lost the series. And, it’s not just that the Yanks went down; even Jose Altuve’s 250th career home run also came in the same match. Bellinger witnessed the moment from the field itself. That’s not something typical of a revenge tour, is it?

One X user, meanwhile, stepped forward to offer a rational check on the much-talked-about incident: “We know, but we’re going on almost 9 years since this happened. Move on. It’s what it is. It’s a stain on the league. Can’t undo it.” Well, the Astros won the 2017 World Series, and there’s no denying that. So, it might be time to move on from the sign-stealing scandal and not treat every subsequent game as a continuation of that controversy.

Not every fan, however, took offense at Bellinger’s resurfaced video. “This 1000000%,” a comment read. For the Dodgers fans, the 2017 incident still haunts them. So, Bellinger’s brutal take surely rubbed the right nose with them. But hey, the timing of that video resurfacing was definitely not ideal. Not for Cody Bellinger, that’s for sure!