Aaron Boone just insinuated Cody Bellinger or Trent Grisham will be leaving Yankees

During the New York Yankees' end-of-season press conference that was littered with Anthony Volpe and Carlos Rodón injury updates (as well as the incessant defense of their decision to play a hobbled Volpe for almost six more months), a notable development got overshadowed.

The biggest questions surrounding the upcoming offseason have to do with the impending free agencies of Cody Bellinger and Trent Grisham. Bellinger is expected to opt out of his contract (no surprise) and Grisham will hit the open market for the first time in his career (after a banner season).

At one point, many thought both could return. Re-signing Bellinger in this weak free agency class really felt like a necessity (and still probably is). As for Grisham? That's a bit more complicated.

The Yankees could give him the 2026 qualifying offer, which would guarantee him $22.025 million on a one-year deal, but his putrid playoff performance may have changed the thought process on that. in all likelihood, somebody will probably give him a multi-year contract that he'd prefer — there was just an outside chance fans felt another team might've been deterred by the draft pick compensation attached to signing him. Tacking on the QO would've given the Yankees a pick in the event of his departure.

Whatever the case, it's now almost a guarantee one of Bellinger and Grisham departs this offseason, based on manager Aaron Boone's commentary about Jasson Dominguez.

Jasson Dominguez's 2026 role with Yankees foreshadowing departures for Cody Bellinger or Trent Grisham

Dominguez's playing time all but fully evaporated once September arrived. It started to decrease in August when he received just 59 plate appearances (his lowest monthly total to date) and then that number plummeted to 20 in September/October. The Yankees couldn't risk having his poor defense out there, and his offensive contributions weren't a worthy trade-off (.719 OPS, 101 OPS+).

Now that he's expected to play "regularly" in 2026 with left field being his most likely fate, that means the Yankees are leaving center field open for the possible return of Bellinger or Grisham, but there's no way they can make room for all three if Dominguez is going to see increased reps. They managed to make it happen early on in 2025, but that was when they had the DH spot open for three months with Giancarlo Stanton injured. In no world is Dominguez seeing consistent reps as the fourth outfielder with all of those names in the fold.

The perfect scenario might be retaining Bellinger and using him mostly in left field with Dominguez returning to his natural role in center. But because bringing back Bellinger isn't a guarantee, they'll probably need to keep the center field label vacant right now in case Grisham becomes their fallback plan if Belli leaves.

Either way, unless the Yankees are straight up lying here (don't put it past them) and plan to trade Dominguez in the offseason, expect the outfield picture to change with one of their 30-homer bats wearing new threads in 2026.