NEWSLETTER
Just a Sunday update today with a couple non-Cubs mentions in connection to Cody Bellinger, which immediately makes me wonder if we’re in the throes of a final pressure campaign to get the Cubs to pull the trigger on an improved offer.
We cannot know that for sure, of course, but given that pitchers and catchers report in 10 days, the timing makes sense to me, especially if Bellinger is the kind of baseball player who just wants to get where he’s going and get started on the next season. (He wouldn’t need to get a FULL Spring Training with the Cubs to feel comfortable and ready for the season, but I wouldn’t want this thing to bleed too far into March or whatever.)
We also can’t know, by the way, whether some team that we perceive as merely a leverage player might ACTUALLY decide to step up and make an offer that Bellinger and Scott Boras decide is so much better than anything the Cubs will eventually do. That’s when the Cubs could actually lose him.
- Bob Nightengale resurfaces the Phillies as a possible Cody Bellinger suitor: “Several executives think the Philadelphia Phillies could be a sleeper for one of the remaining marquee free agents in starter Jordan Montgomery or center fielder Cody Bellinger. Their lone big move has been re-signing Aaron Nola, and Bellinger certainly would provide Gold Glove-caliber defense and another bat to balance the lineup. Montgomery would strengthen the top of the rotation.”
- The Phillies certainly could stand to add to an already-strong roster if they want to really push the Braves in the NL East. And for as good as Johan Rojas and Cristian Pache are defensively, the Phillies might decide neither is about to hit for enough to really lock down center field. Bellinger could also be eventual corner outfield or first base insurance, depending on how the Phillies eventually coordinate Bryce Harper, Nick Castellanos, and Kyle Schwarber (and the latter two departing in 2/3 years).
- Two important caveats here. For one, the mention of Bellinger OR Montgomery feels like this isn’t any kind of specific and serious pursuit. Just a “we’d take a top-tier free agent if the price is right” situation. And for another, Nightengale goes on to say specifically that the Phillies “plan to remain patient” until and unless the price tags drop. I tend to be of the opinion that if the price tag on Bellinger drops meaningfully below $200 million, he is highly likely to get an appropriate and acceptable offer from the Cubs, rather than some other new suitor.
- The other mention comes from Jon Heyman, who writes, “The Angels may hold the key to the rest of the free-agent market. They like Blake Snell and Cody Bellinger, but for now word is circulating that they may not go for the biggest free agents. Angels owner Arte Moreno has been a big free agent player in the past, and he could change course.”
- So, as we’ve heard before, the Angels like Cody Bellinger, but it would take their unpredictable owner stepping up to make it happen. Obviously Scott Boras wants to see exactly that, though the fact that this is getting out into the world via Heyman doesn’t make me think the Angels are aggressively pursuing or that Moreno is already inclined to demand a signing. Instead, it feels more like a nudge from an agent to try to GET Moreno to do it. Especially given the next comment from Heyman: “(The Angels) have a decent young nucleus and enhanced the bullpen (Robert Stephenson and Matt Moore), but fans in the O.C. can’t think that compensates for the loss of Shohei Ohtani.” If you want fans to feel better about the loss of Ohtani, Arte, you need to step up for another star. That’s how it reads to me.
Will it work? Will any of this work to get the Angels or Phillies more serious in their efforts? Will it work to get the Cubs to step up from wherever they currently are on the offer scale? I tend to doubt it on both fronts. If I had to take a guess, based on a synthesis of everything we’ve seen and heard and thought over the past four months: the Cubs are probably pretty dug in on their current offer, with a willingness to move north only if Boras first shows a willingness to move south.
