Steve Webb
In our second-to-last stop on our trip around the Dodgers lineup, we arrive at the position that for me anyway has the most question marks. Not about who will be playing. Cody Bellinger will definitely be in center most days for the team. That’s not even a question. The question is which Cody Bellinger are we going to see? Rookie of the Year Cody? MVP Cody? Or, Off-Year Cody, who frustrates Dodger fans to no end? It’s an open question, and I’m still not quite sure who Cody Bellinger really is. Before we delve into the numbers more deeply, let’s look at some other likely denizens of center in 2021:
SUPPORTING CAST: Peters, McKinstry, Pollock, Taylor
All four of these players are likely to see at least a little time in center field this year if Dave Roberts needs to rest Bellinger or put him at first to spell Max Muncy during the year. DJ Peters has looked good out in the field in Arizona this spring, but he is unlikely to make the opening day roster. Still, it will be nice having him around in case of an injury to Pollock, Betts, or Bellinger. McKinstry did start a few games in center this spring and he looked okay. Like Chris Taylor, he will be another good option all over the field this year, and it’s his defensive flexibility that will make him so valuable.
Pollock and Taylor, on the other hand, we’ve already discussed as left field candidates, but we feel pretty good about either of those guys in center as well. Pollock won the Gold Glove as a center fielder in 2015. While he’s not the defender he was back then, he’s still decent. Taylor has shone as an outfield defender at times, but he’s still a natural infielder and the team would be losing quite a bit of range when he plays center. Obviously, the best choice for center field is for Cody Bellinger to stay healthy and play well all season. Let’s take a look at the chances of that actually happening:
Cody Bellinger (2020: .239 AVG, 12 HR, 30 RBI)
Still only 25 years old, Cody Bellinger has already had quite the career. After a great rookie season, in which he hit 39 home runs and drove in 97, Bellinger took a huge step backward in his sophomore year. His batting average was off just a little, but his power numbers were way down. In 2018, he hit only 25 big flies despite having nearly a hundred more at bats than the year before. In the post season, he had his moments, but sort of disappeared in the World Series, hitting a measly .063 against the Red Sox. Certainly nothing he’d done that season prepared any of us for 2019.
In the first part of the 2019 season, simply put, Cody Bellinger was playing out of his ever-loving mind. He had a 1.350 OPS in April, which was the best first month of any player in over 100 years. His average lingered over .400 well into May. His battle for the MVP with Brewer Christian Yelich was something to behold that summer, with each matching the other game by game. And even though Cody faded considerably during the summer, he was able to edge out Yelich for the MVP honor at the end of the year.
So great, we’ve got ourselves a superstar, right? Not so fast, bub. 2020 was a cold dose of reality for Bellinger. He seemed to have trouble getting extended with that long violent swing, and was struggling mightily in the early part of the year. Every time he would hit a homer and fans would think, “Great! Cody’s on track!”, he would turn around and have stretches that were frankly hard to watch. By the end of the shortened season, he was able to get back to form a bit, and his late-inning homerun in the Atlanta series was probably THE moment of the playoffs.
Still, I don’t think there’s any other way to describe 2020 for Cody Bellinger than disappointing. We had been hoping for so much more. Plus, that forearm bash with Kiké Hernandez popped Belli’s shoulder, and he needed surgery during the offseason to repair the damage. This Spring he’s been SLOOOOOWLY working himself back and still has only played a half dozen games. It’s too soon to say what, if any, effect the injury might have long-term. Hopefully, he’ll be back to early 2019 Cody and we can all pretend 2020 didn’t happen.
Except for the wining the World Series part. That, I’d like to repeat as often as possible.
DODGERSBEAT RATING: A-
