The New York Yankees appear to have quite a bit of talent in their outfield this season. Most Valuable Player and rightfielder Aaron Judge will be joined by Cody Bellinger in leftfield and Trent Grisham in center. Bellinger has had multiple injury issues throughout his career (labrum, fractured fibula, fractured ribs and back tightness), and he appears to have something of a back problem in spring training.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone reported that Bellinger's back “went out on him a little bit” in camp, and he will take a few days off. Boone does not expect this back issue to become any kind of a significant problem and he could make it back into the team's spring training lineup early next week.
There's no reason for the Yankees to panic because it is so early in spring training. A few days off in early March does not mean that Bellinger will be on the injured list or miss the team's opening game March 25 against the San Francisco Giants on the West Coast.
Bellinger is preparing for his 10th big league season and his second with the Yankees. He slashed .272/.334/.480 last season while blasting 29 home runs and driving in 98 runs. Bellinger would love to match or better those figures while hitting in the same lineup with Judge and slugger Giancarlo Stanton.
Bellinger played his first six seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers and then had two seasons with the Chicago Cubs before moving on to the American League and the Yankees. Bellinger won the NL Most Valuable Player Award in 2019 when he hammered 47 home runs and drove in 115 runs.
