In mid-November, the Dodgers decided to non-tender Cody Bellinger, who won the 2019 NL MVP award. Just a few weeks later, the Cubs and Cody Bellinger agreed to a 1-year deal. In 2022, Cody Bellinger was hitting .210/.265/.389 with 19 home runs and 68 RBI. Bellinger struggled in 2022 and I was just wondering whether he could have a successful season in Chicago.
Firstly, Cody Bellinger was called up on April 25, 2017. Since then, he has played a key role for the Dodgers. Bellinger had a great rookie season, hitting .267/.352/.581 with 39 home runs and 97 RBI in 132 games. Additionally, Bellinger had 10 stolen bases and he won the 2017 NL Rookie of the Year award. Moreover, he had an .813 OPS in 2018 and in 2019, he had an outstanding season. In that season, Bellinger played 156 games for the Dodgers. He slashed .305/.406/.629 with 47 home runs and 115 RBI. Most importantly, he won the 2019 NL MVP award. In the first three seasons of his career, Bellinger batted .278/.368/.559 with 111 home runs and 288 RBI in 450 games.
However, from 2020 to 2022, it seems that Cody Bellinger has become a different hitter. Over the last three seasons, Belling only batted .203/.272/.376 with 41 home runs and 134 RBI in 295 games. In the first three seasons of Bellinger’s career, his OPS was over .900. Nonetheless, his OPS was below .700 from 2020 to 2022.
From 2017 to 2019, Cody Bellinger was one of the most dangerous hitters in the majors. But, from 2020 to 2022, Bellinger just couldn’t do much to help the Dodgers lineup.
In addition, as we can see, Bellinger’s hard-hit rate was below 40% over the last 2 seasons. Furthermore, in 2022, his strikeout rate was 27.3%, which is the highest in his career. Moreover, his walk rate was below 7% last season, the lowest in his career. And, back in 2017, Bellinger’s chase rate was 23.5% and last year, his chase rate increased to 31.7%.
Finally, let’s take a look at Bellinger’s performance at Wrigley Field. By far in his career, Bellinger played 9 games at Wrigley Field, hitting .321/.429/.536 with 1 home run and 4 RBI. It might be a small sample size. Nonetheless, Cody Belling did hit well against the Cubs at Wrigley Field. In 2022, he collected 4 hits in 3 games against the Cubs.
After spending 6 seasons with the Dodgers, Cody Bellinger will move to Chicago. By far in his career, he’s been playing well at Wrigley field. Nonetheless, from 2020 to 2022, Cody Bellinger wasn’t just the same Bellinger as we saw in the first three seasons of his career. Looking at the stats, he wasn’t as productive as he was from 2017 to 2019. Furthermore, his chase rate and strikeout rate each reach his career high. And, he didn’t draw too many walks last season. It might not be a bad idea to move to a new team. However, Cody Bellinger surely has a lot to work on. In particular, he will become a free agent after the 2023 season. Bellinger has to show that it’s worthwhile to ink a long-term deal with him.
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