Dodgers: Cody Bellinger is Suddenly Leading the Way
There are very few among us who expected to see this out of Cody Bellinger at this point. With the horrendous Spring Training that he had right after a terrible 2021 season, Dodgers fans were ready to write him off in this lineup. But instead, Cody is flourishing with the bat.
Across his first 12 games of the season, Bellinger is hitting .279 and has posted an OPS of .889, all while striking out 15 times. And while that may seem like a lot, it’s much better than he was doing in Spring Training and it has slightly improved as the Dodgers season has progressed.
Bellinger is third on the team right now with 12 hits, just behind Freddie Freeman and Trea Turner. He has also stolen the most bases on the team, even with a lineup featuring Turner and Mookie Betts. So while other key Dodgers players struggle, Bellinger is very much picking up the slack.
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The biggest difference? He just looks confident in the box. And why wouldn’t you be with his average exit velocity climbing since the first series of the year? When he’s right, Cody hits the ball very hard, and that’s what the Dodgers are seeing more and more of. The numbers aren’t quite there yet, but he really looks to be finding his groove.
Bellinger has six multi-hit games this season, the most of any Dodgers player. Any game that he gets one hit, he has followed it up with another. And while the hitless games aren’t great, he already looks way better than last year,.
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Seems to me it was the writers who were the ones (apparently) assuming Bellinger wasn’t going to improve during his spring training strikeout scourge. Yes, he had a bad year last year, but after the previous post-season shoulder injury, then the early-season fractured leg, weren’t there reasons to attribute the poor year to, other than him forgetting how to hit? Coming back from a significant shoulder injury and gaining confidence in the repair can eat up a year by itself – having had a couple of shoulder surgeries myself, I wasn’t among those clamoring to consider sending him down, given his defense, base path speed, and the possibility that he just needed more time after an abbreviated spring… As you point out, he isn’t back to his MVP form, but he’s coming along!
WE have finally seen the dropping of Cody’s head during his swing NOW where it was most of his great 2019 season- a little less than a foot downward-not the 2 feet it has been the last 2 seasons! I hope the “drop” stays that little or even disappears (like it should). CODY-we are all pulling for you!
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