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Former NL MVP Award winner Cody Bellinger has agreed to a one-year, $17.5 million deal with the Cubs, a source told MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand on Tuesday night. The club has not confirmed the move.
Bellinger put together a remarkable 2019 season for the Dodgers en route to being named the National League MVP — but he’s struggled in the three seasons since. After hitting .305 with a 1.035 OPS and 47 home runs in his MVP-winning campaign, Bellinger has hit just .203 with a .648 OPS and 41 homers in the past three years combined.
The 27-year-old Bellinger showed some flashes of his past success in 2022, racking up 19 home runs and 14 stolen bases. He also recorded seven Outs Above Average as the everyday center fielder for a Dodgers team that won an MLB-high 111 games. Bellinger’s seven OAA were tied for the third most by any NL center fielder.
Still, Bellinger will be hoping to rediscover the form that made him one of the game’s top players during his first three big league seasons. He burst onto the scene in 2017, clubbing 39 home runs in just 132 games on his way to being named the NL Rookie of the Year.
Bellinger followed that up with a 25-homer season while playing all 162 games in 2018 — and went on to earn NLCS MVP honors during that postseason. He then put together his career year in ’19, earning his second All-Star selection, first Gold Glove Award and first Silver Slugger in the process.
His struggles began in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season before injuries derailed his ’21 campaign. He had three stints on the injured list in ’21, missing nearly two months with a left shin fracture, another two weeks due to left hamstring tightness and 10 more days with a left rib fracture.
Following a mostly healthy 2022 season, Bellinger will look to hit the ground running in ’23.