By Jordan Long
Major League Baseball will conclude their Winter Meetings today in San Diego, California. This is where they talk about baseball business, sign free agents, and complete trades. The Chicago Cubs decided to sign free agent center fielder Cody Bellinger.
Bellinger played his whole career with the L.A. Dodgers which spans 6 seasons. In that time he proved he can drive the ball into the gap to score runs. Bellinger is a career .248 hitter with 134 doubles, 19 triples, and 422 RBI’s.
Bellinger’s problem though is he isn’t much of a home run hitter. In the last 3 years, including the COVID-shortened season in 2020, Bellinger failed to hit 20+ home runs in a season. The closest he came was this past year where he smacked 19. In his career, Bellinger totaled 152 home runs.
Looking at his fielding, Bellinger most likely will be the everyday center fielder for the Cubs. He joins Seiya Suzuki and Ian Happ in the outfield. Bellinger has spent 377 games at center field in his career. In those games, he has proven that runners can’t try to advance on him because of his strong arm. Bellinger is a threat to throw them out with 6 outfield assists. Bellinger rarely drops the ball for errors with a total of 9 at the position. In 2019, Bellinger won his only Gold Glove for his play. The Cubs are anticipating his offense and glove will be the boost the Cubs need to improve on their 74-88 record.
For the Cubs, they only gave Bellinger a 1-year $17.5 million deal. 2023 is a make it or break year for Bellinger. Bellinger could play well which would not only help the Cubs in the standings but help him earn an extension. Of course, if Bellinger’s play starts to go sideways and he isn’t driving the ball as the Cubs hoped, they will trade him or cut ties with him at the end of the year. It’s a low-risk, high-reward deal.
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