Outfielder Cody Bellinger and the Cubs agreed on a three-year, $80 million deal on Sunday, in line with a report from ESPN’s Jeff Passan. Bellinger will reportedly obtain opt-outs after every of the primary two years of the deal. The deal has not been confirmed by the membership.
Final offseason, the query surrounding Bellinger was: Which workforce will take an opportunity on the previous NL MVP who noticed his offensive manufacturing fall off a cliff from 2020-22? This time round, it wasn’t a query of whether or not Bellinger was price taking a flier on, however simply how a lot he’d earn along with his subsequent contract.
Following his 2019 NL MVP marketing campaign, Bellinger hit simply .203/.272/.376 over the following three seasons with the Dodgers. However upon becoming a member of the Cubs on a one-year deal for 2023, he regained a lot of the pop on the plate that led to his speedy rise to stardom. In 130 video games with Chicago, he hit .307/.356/.525 with 26 house runs, 97 RBIs and 20 steals.
Though he’s already performed in seven Main League seasons, Bellinger remains to be in his prime at 28 years outdated. He made his large league debut for the Dodgers at age 21 in 2017, a season wherein he was named the NL Rookie of the 12 months. He had an amazing marketing campaign on the plate, belting 39 homers and posting a .933 OPS.
Bellinger took a little bit of a step again offensively in his sophomore season, although he nonetheless completed the 2018 marketing campaign with 25 homers and an .813 OPS. Then got here his MVP efficiency in ’19, wherein he smashed 47 homers whereas producing a .305/.406/.629 slash line and profitable a Gold Glove Award for his stellar play in proper area.
The underlying high quality of contact metrics recommend that Bellinger had some luck on his facet throughout a resurgent 2023 — in line with Statcast, his anticipated batting common was 37 factors under the precise determine, his anticipated slugging share was 88 factors decrease than his precise slugging share and each his hard-hit price and barrel price had been down considerably over the earlier yr.
Nonetheless, Bellinger’s 15.6 p.c strikeout price was the bottom of his profession and represented a 43 p.c drop from his Okay price in 2022. And the speed at which he made contact on the “candy spot” in ’23 was 38 p.c, the second-highest of his profession solely behind his 39.6 p.c sweet-spot price from his ’19 MVP marketing campaign.