NEWSLETTER
A couple Cody Bellinger notes to share emanating from the GM Meetings in Arizona, each of which confirm something we already suspected: Bellinger liked his time in Chicago well enough that he really would like to stick long-term. It isn’t just outgoing-player-lip-service.
First, although we know the Yankees will be interested in Bellinger because of the obvious fit (and their interest at the deadline), here’s how Jon Heyman framed things:
“The competition for Bellinger’s services will be keen, and the incumbent Cubs, who made the deal of the winter signing him for $16.5 million for 2023, will be a formidable combatant. Word is, he loved his year there.”
Formidable, eh? Loved his year there, eh?
Keep in mind, Bellinger’s agent, Scott Boras, would have an extremely strong incentive to suggest to other suitors that Bellinger LOVED his time with the Cubs – who are DEFINITELY interested in keeping him – and thus their offers will have to blow the Cubs’ away to get him. Is all of that completely true, or just the way an agent would help his client’s market? Probably a mild exaggeration, at least.
Now from Sahadev Sharma at The Athletic, where you can almost see the inevitable push and pull between team and agent in a single paragraph:
“They’ll stay in contact with agent Scott Boras regarding a return for Bellinger. Multiple league sources suggested that Bellinger was very happy and comfortable with the Cubs and would love to return. But Bellinger’s market is incredibly hard to read at the moment. Boras will be selling his client to teams on the fact that this is a former MVP who found his form after what he’ll contend are two outlier down seasons which occurred primarily due to injuries from which his client is fully healed. If a team bites and is willing to meet his price early in the offseason, that almost certainly means the Cubs aren’t the destination. If his free agency lingers deep into the winter, perhaps a return to Chicago becomes more realistic.”
Cody Bellinger was very happy with the Cubs and wants to return. But also the Cubs aren’t going to be the team that jumps with a huge offer early in the offseason. So, maybe that means either Bellinger gets a monster contract early on from a non-Cubs suitor, or he gets an acceptable contract later on from the Cubs. Win-win from his perspective?
For the Cubs, I think that approach is probably also fine with them, though I do wonder how the early part of their offseason would be impacted by the knowledge that they COULD wind up with Bellinger later on, but also might not. For some moves, it wouldn’t matter at all (aggressively pursuing Shohei Ohtani, for example), but others might present the Cubs with a bit of a conundrum.
All in all, I think the important takeaway here is that these reports generally track with what we’ve heard and gut-felt before: Cody Bellinger would be happy to stick with the Cubs, the Cubs would be happy to retain Bellinger at a reasonable price (almost certainly not that one speculated 12/$264M), and the process might not be settled any time soon.
