When the Yankees leaked their $30M+ annual offer to Cody Bellinger ahead of the weekend, it appeared to mean one of two things: a deal was getting close, or the Yankees wanted to clearly communicate that they'd tried before things fell apart.
It was hard not to view an offer in that range as the best Bellinger was going to receive, provided it wasn't for one or two years. After all, it would've made him either the fourth or fifth highest-paid outfielder in baseball, depending on whether it eclipsed Mookie Betts' $30.4 million AAV. It already felt like the Yankees had capitulated to Scott Boras.