Cody Bellinger has reportedly agreed to a five-year, $162.5 million contract extension from the New York Yankees, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the agreement would be conditional on a medical examination.

Bellinger will receive a 20 million signing bonus and benefit from a total no-trade clause. He will have the right to terminate his contract after the 2027 or 2028 seasons to return to being a free agent, but if a work stoppage prevents games from being played in 2027, the agreement stipulates that withdrawals will be postponed until after the 2027 and 2028 seasons.

Bellinger, a two-time All-Star selection, was acquired from the Chicago Cubs in December 2024. He hit .272 with 29 home runs and 98 RBIs last season with the Yankees, even posting a .302 average with 18 home runs and 55 RBIs at Yankee Stadium.

The left-handed hitter played 149 games in the outfield and seven at first base in his first non-infirmary season since 2022.

He is the son of former Yankees player Clay Bellinger.

Bellinger, who was the NL Rookie of the Year in 2017 and the NL MVP in 2019, is hitting .261 with 225 homers and 695 RBIs in eight seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers (2018-22), Cubs (2023-24) and Yankees.

He pocketed $57.5 million as part of his three-year, $80 million deal ratified with the Cubs at the start of the 2024 season. However, he declined an option that would have allowed him to receive $26 million in 2026, preferring a $5 million release clause.

These days, Buster Posey is focused on building a winning team as president of baseball operations for the San Francisco Giants.

In 11 months, however, journalists will evaluate the first part of his career.

Among the new candidates on the Hall of Fame ballot, Posey should be among the favorites for the 2027 class.

There are no new people elected in this year’s first round, after the results were announced on Tuesday night. Carlos Beltran and Andruw Jones were the only ones elected.

Beltran and Jones were the top-voting candidates in 2025, so it’s no surprise they received the requisite approval from 75% of Baseball Columnists Association of America members. The fact that the newcomers at the polls did not attract much attention worked in their favor. Among this group, only Cole Hamels exceeded the 5% threshold to avoid being excluded from possible elections.

Next year, Posey will have a chance to enter the Hall of Fame on his first try. A seven-time All-Star Game selection who led the Giants to three World Series victories, this all-star catcher was crowned National League batting champion and MVP in 2012.

The receiver position doesn’t lead to induction into the Hall of Fame, but Joe Mauer got there two years ago on his first try.

“I remember doing a poll before the results came out, just to gauge what people thought was going to happen with Mauer, and the results were very mixed,” said Ryan Thibodaux, who runs an online vote tracking site before the results were announced every year.

“Some thought he would get about 20% of the vote, others thought he would be elected. I think in Posey’s case, perhaps in part because of Mauer, we have a feeling he could very well be elected in the first round,” he said.

Rising pitchers

Votes for Andy Pettitte jumped from 27.9% to 48.5% this year, and votes for Félix Hernandez increased from 20.6% to 46.1%. This does not mean that their chances of being inducted are similar.

Pettitte can only be a candidate for two years before reaching the 10-year limit. Hernandez, on the other hand, has only been a candidate twice and still has a long way to go.

Voters have been pretty open to considering the best starting pitchers on the ballot lately. CC Sabathia was sworn in on the first ballot last year, and now Pettitte and Hernandez have seen their popularity soar. Hamels, in turn, obtained 23.8% of the votes in his first appearance at the polls.

One source of concern for Hamels is that sooner or later players like Clayton Kershaw, Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer, who have each won three Cy-Young trophies, will be eligible. It will be harder for other starting pitchers to be directly compared to these three players.

But Hernandez could be elected before that becomes an issue.

Best return

The candidate with the most votes without reaching 75% this year was Chase Utley, who went from 39.8% to 59.1%. This was only his third participation in the vote.

“It appears that Utley has put himself in position to be elected as early as next year, although a 16 percent gain is not easy to achieve,” Thibodaux said. He will probably come close, if not achieve his goal. »

Last chance

Only one player will be present in the 10^and times in the vote. This is Omar Vizquel, who obtained just 18.4% of the votes this year.

The highly skilled infielder received 52.6% of the vote in 2020, but was accused of domestic violence by his ex-wife and his support collapsed. He was also sued for sexual harassment by a former minor league batter.

Carlos Beltran and Andruw Jones were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in a vote by the Baseball Chroniclers of America on Tuesday.

They will be inducted into Cooperstown on July 26 alongside second baseman Jeff Kent, who was elected in December by the Contemporary Era Committee.

A nine-time All-Star, Beltrán had a .279 batting average with 435 home runs and 1,587 RBIs in 20 seasons with Kansas City (1999-2004), Houston (2004, 2017), New York Mets (2005-2011), San Francisco (2011), St. Louis (2014-2016) and Texas (2016).

He was named American Rookie of the Year in 1999 by the Kansas Royals and won three Gold Gloves.

Beltran also stole 312 bases in 361 attempts.

In the playoffs, he maintained a .307 batting average with 16 home runs and 42 RBIs in 65 games.

Beltrán was hired as Mets manager on Nov. 1, 2019, and fired on Jan. 16 without managing a single game, three days after he was the only Astros player named by name in an MLB report on the team’s illicit use of electronic devices to steal signs during Houston’s 2017 World Series victory.

Jones had a .254 batting average with 434 home runs, 1,289 RBIs and 152 stolen bases in 17 seasons with Atlanta (1996-2007), Los Angeles Dodgers (2008), Texas (2009), Chicago White Sox (2010) and Yankees (2011-2012).

In 2005, he led the majors with 51 home runs and the Nationals with 128 RBIs, which allowed him to finish second in MVP voting, awarded to Albert Pujols.

He finished his career with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of the Japanese Pacific League (2013-2014).

His batting average is the second lowest for a player elected to the Hall, just above that of Ray Schalk (.253), an excellent defensive catcher, and just below that of Harmon Killebrew (.256), who hit 573 home runs.

A five-time All-Star, Jones won 10 Gold Gloves.

Only Willie Mays has more than him, with 12.

In Game 1 of the 1996 World Series at Yankee Stadium, Jones became, at 19 years and five months, the youngest player to hit a home run in the Fall Classic, breaking Mickey Mantle’s record by 18 months.