Even though the Mets and Yankees love to play up the classic New York rivalry, they’re actually on the same wavelength this offseason. Why? Because both David Stearns and Brian Cashman are shopping on a budget. For the Yankees in particular, there haven’t been any splashy, big-ticket moves so far. Even Cody Bellinger, one of their key performers heading into 2025, still isn’t locked in.

So what’s the plan? According to insiders, Cashman may be sticking with a familiar but flawed approach, one that has all the ingredients to waste yet another prime season of Aaron Judge!

“The Yankees plan, if they do have one, seems to be that they’re going to copy and paste that 2025 team back into 2026 because I think that they believe that that team is really good. Okay, that team was good, but it was

flawed. And if you decide that your biggest plan is to copy and paste the same team that you had the season before into the season that we’re about to have coming up, and it doesn’t have Cody Bellinger on it,” former Yankee Clint Frazier shared via his YouTube channel.

Let’s be honest, the Yankees were mediocre this year. Sure, they made the postseason, but that’s not the standard in the Bronx. The expectation is the World Series, not just sneaking into October. And if you rewind to last August, the warning signs were already there. The Yankees hadn’t really been showing up, mostly beating up on weaker teams and struggling when the moment called for more.

Overall, they were just 35–35 against teams over .500 and 17–22 within the division in 2025!

Now, that’s where the flaws start to show. The Yankees keep undoing themselves with sloppy baserunning and defensive mistakes, the same issues that showed up in the 2024 World Series and have defined months of uneven play since. The one real bright spot? Cody Bellinger.

The 30-year-old just put together a strong 2025 season, posting a 125 wRC+ with 29 HRs and a .272/.334/.480 line across 656 plate appearances.

Hence, according to Frazier, with no major offseason additions and Trent Grisham sticking around, it looks like Cashman is prepared to roll it back with largely the same roster. But how does that work without locking up Bellinger? How does it work without addressing the baserunning issues or shoring up the bullpen?

However this plays out, it’s starting to feel like Aaron Judge could be watching another prime opportunity for a championship slip away before his career is over.

The Yankees are working towards a Bellinger replacement

Well, even if the Yankees decide to run it back with mostly the same roster and make only minimal offseason moves, one thing they can’t afford to lose is Cody Bellinger’s bat. The problem, according to Frazier, is that Bellinger has no shortage of suitors. That leaves the Yankees with two choices: either match the highest bid to keep him, or start looking for replacements.

And it looks like Brian Cashman may be leaning toward the second option.

According to MLB insider Jon Heyman, the Yankees have checked in on Austin Hays!

Hays is 30 and coming off a solid 2025 season with Cincinnati. In 103 games, he hit .266 with a .768 OPS, adding 15 HRs and 16 doubles. He also drove in 64 runs, showing he can be a reliable offensive contributor, especially against left-handed pitching. That success versus southpaws is a big reason he’s on the Yankees’ radar.

So now it becomes a wait-and-see game. Who actually ends up in pinstripes? And more importantly, is this level of change really enough to fix the Yankees’ flawed offseason approach?