Yankees' latest Cody Bellinger posturing could make Scott Boras channel Larry David

After a weekend full of public negotiating, poking and prodding, it might be time for Yankees fans to ask a different question besides, "Who out there is topping our offer for Cody Bellinger?" Instead, they should be asking, "Is our offer out of consideration, even though it's almost definitely the highest bid?"

Saturday night's report indicating the Yankees expected Bellinger to sign elsewhere sounded like bluster a la the Pete Alonso saga from 2024-25, which ultimately ended with Alonso capitulating to the Mets on a one-year pact (thanks to an opt-out). Even after the Alex Bregman contract, it's still difficult to envision Boras finding seven years (or even six) for Bellinger in a market that has told him several years running that they fear giving him a long-term commitment. Even the five-year offer from the Yankees seemed like a stretch. It also seemed likely to secure him ... until the "expectations" turned over the weekend.

There are now three options on the table:

• Somebody outbids the Yankees — likely somebody we haven't heard from yet.

• The Yankees ultimately land Bellinger, and this is all forgotten.

• Boras and the Yankees are completely done with one another, and Bellinger and the super agent will take a shorter/cheaper deal elsewhere out of spite.

It's the Larry David method from Curb Your Enthusiam. It might not make any sense. It might not be in his best interest. But spite can be an extremely powerful emotion.

Yankees could lose Cody Bellinger out of Scott Boras spite

When Larry David, playing a heightened version of himself (barely), opened up a coffee shop directly next to his enemy, Mocha Joe, and his very similar coffee shop, he didn't know the first thing about running such an establishment. He didn't care. Such is the nature of a Spite Store; you make the decision in an effort to increase someone else's unhappiness, then fill in the logic gaps as you go.

Why would Bellinger and Boras settle for less than the Yankees' offer, setting up additional uncertainty in the years to come with a lockout looming? They wouldn't ... unless they'd grown so frustrated with the Yankees' line in the sand in recent weeks that they'd prefer any deal that doesn't come from Hal Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman. It would have to be the complete antithesis of what we'd heard from Bellinger and Co. at the end of the season. He (and his agent) would have to be aligned that wearing the pinstripes again, at any price, would not only be unwelcome, but would not be an option.

As it becomes tougher and tougher to envision any team being coerced into getting uncomfortable for Bellinger, especially as the Dodgers and Mets battle over Kyle Tucker, it's difficult to rule out a Spite Offer serving as the ultimate exclamation point to this public process.

After all, why else would the Yankees be expecting Bellinger to land elsewhere with no real competition? Either it's all a show, or they know their top bid has been pulled out of (likely mutual) spite. And while Yankee fans might want to call Cashman the same thing that Larry David once had painted on his house after a raucous Halloween night, the blame here falls mostly on Boras.