The Yankees are one of the biggest teams in baseball, and while most of this popularity can be attributed to the best hitter in baseball, Aaron Judge, there’s another guy in the outfield who’s been attracting media attention for a while. Cody Bellinger, a 29-year-old left fielder, has been one of the top players on the New York team’s roster, but his social media popularity has often transcended what he can do with a bat or glove.
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Bellinger, to make a long story short, always looks high during games. Whether he’s lounging around in the outfield waiting to make a play or sitting in the dugout watching his teammates bat, Belli—as he’s called to many fans of the MLB—is seemingly on another planet, sporting the signature squinted eyes and over-relaxed aura.
Why does Cody Bellinger always look like he’s high 😂
pic.twitter.com/5GNvFgKSd1— Kent Murphy (@KentMurphy) March 30, 2025
Baseball is one of those sports where the players get to chill for the vast majority of the time, but none do it like him. Sports fans may clown a guy like that, but when he makes the plays Belli does in the clutch, it’s hard to feel anything but amused.
The MLB fanbase is entirely invested in this joke: there are hundreds of social media posts about Bellinger’s alleged love of cannabis, and stats nerds have taken the opportunity to highlight his strange tendency to play amazingly on 4/20 games. According to StatMuse, Belli has homered on the date for the last three years straight, and in 2023, the ball went a hilarious 420 yards. In May, a Yankees fan tracked his stats since 4/20 and found that he’d recorded seven home runs, 32 hits, and 19 RBIs.
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The rumor that Bellinger is stoned is not limited to his time with the Yankees—during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2020, Bellinger said, “I am not high during the games! “If you look at me in the Little League World Series, I look faded. I was not smoking when I was 12 either. I’m not high, that’s just how my face looks.”
It’s hilarious that a professional athlete is answering this question, let alone days after winning the World Series, but what’s even better is that he’s right: he’s always looked like this. Even so, between his career 4/20 stats and the funny fact that his team’s main pitcher’s last name is Fried, Bellinger seems like he’s never beating the allegations.
As many New York sports fans pivot to baseball after the disappointment of a lifetime at the hands of the Knicks, Bellinger has quickly become a Yankees fan favorite. Not only does he do what he has to do, but it’s truly hilarious to catch glimpses of him in the outfield and wonder if his claims of being weed-free are true.