Dialed in Cody Bellinger ready for his Yankees journey to begin

Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Greg Joyce about the inside buzz on the Yankees.There might not be a major leaguer who can relate with the roller coaster that Cody Bellinger has ridden.The Yankees center fielder has been arguably the best player in baseball, the National League MVP in 2019.

He was arguably the worst regular in baseball in 2021-22, when he combined for a .611 OPS that was the second worst in baseball among players with at least 800 plate appearances.He bounced back the past two seasons and has settled in as an above-average, if not quite elite, contributor. Beginning Thursday in The Bronx against the Brewers, his journey takes him to a new home that on paper fits him perfectly and a new team for which he looms as perhaps the biggest wild card. “He’s been really dialed in, it seems like, from jump,” manager Aaron Boone said of Bellinger, who likely will be his Opening Day center fielder and the No.

3 hitter who provides Aaron Judge protection. Bellinger had an excellent spring in which he hit .400 with three home runs and a 1.124 OPS.Over the years, the lefty swinger has made consistent adjustments trying to find a swing and swing approach that works.

There might have been reason for Bellinger to tweak his cut again entering this year, when he will be playing half his games in a ballpark that is built for a lefty hitter like him. But no, Bellinger said this spring, he has not reconfigured his stroke to try to take full advantage of the short, Yankee Stadium porch.When his natural swing is going right, he said, his batted balls tend to go to the right, too. “The second you start trying to pull, [it is] bad news, in my opinion,” Bellinger said during camp.

“Put my swing on the inside part of the baseball, and good things happen.” Good things tend to happen for lefty hitters who pull the ball at Yankee Stadium, although it will be curious to see which version of Belling...