Can the Cubs fix Cody Bellinger? Inside the former MVP’s change of scenery
Can a change of scenery fix new Chicago Cubs center fielder Cody Bellinger?
Winner of the National League MVP Award in 2019, Bellinger has been on a downward spiral at the plate ever since. It led to him being released by the Los Angeles Dodgers in December and eventually signed by the Cubs on a 1-year, $17.5 million deal.
“I’m working my butt off to become the best player I possibly can become,” Bellinger said recently. “The best version of myself.”
The reviews have been mixed this spring. With Opening Day less than a week away, Bellinger is hitting .194 with a pair of home runs in spring training. Fixing things won’t happen overnight.
“I get to start fresh,” Cubs hitting coach Dustin Kelly said of working with Bellinger. “And he’s starting from a healthy base.”
Injuries have been a big issue for Bellinger since that MVP season. First was the infamous shoulder dislocation, reinjured while celebrating a Game 7 home run in the 2020 World Series.
Then came a hairline fracture in his left foot early in 2021. Later that season, he also had a hamstring strain. Last year, he had 550 plate appearances, but he still produced just a .654 OPS.
“I’m as healthy as I’ve been at any time recently,” Bellinger said. “I’m in a good place.”
He said similar last spring, while in Dodgers camp, thinking that would be a springboard to a rebound year. It never happened.
When he hit .305 with 47 home runs in 2019, 49% percent of balls Bellinger put in play were tracked with an exit velocity of 95-plus mph, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. Since then, that number has dropped to 38%.
The decline on balls hit 105-plus mph has been even steeper — from 47% to 30%. And since that MVP season, Bellinger’s strikeout rate has gone from 16.3% to 27.3%.
It has all added up to the worst three-year stretch ever for a past MVP — at least in terms of batting average. Bellinger hit just .203 from 2020 to ’22.
But there are reasons for optimism in Cubs camp. It helps that he has a previous relationship with Kelly and Cubs assistant hitting coach Johnny Washington. Both worked in the Dodgers organization while Bellinger was there.
“It began well before spring training,” Kelly said. “It started with conversations, then, ‘Let’s start putting the words to what it looks like in person.’ We’ve slowly introduced new things. We had time on our side. We knew this was going to be a long run.”
And that’s why Bellinger might be a perfect fit for the 2023 Cubs. They’re a year away from handing the center field job to top prospect Pete Crow-Armstrong, and though they signed some good players this offseason — most notably, All-Star shortstop Dansby Swanson — the team isn’t in all-in mode just yet.
Bellinger will get every chance to return to MVP form at Wrigley Field.
“I’m not sure any true contender was willing to give him 600 plate appearances unless they were assured the old Bellinger was back,” one rival general manager said this spring. “The Cubs can do that.”
Kelly has called the work so far a lot of “trial and error.” One American League scout said Bellinger’s timing has been off this spring. while another said he was watching to see if Bellinger was working with a “strength foundation in his legs.”
“A lot of stuff that he does is with his lower half and how gets set up with his hips,” Kelly said. “We used the medicine ball and some positions that are swing-related to strengthen his core.”
Kelly was asked what might look different to the naked eye.
“The biggest thing you’ll see is he’s really calm,” the Cubs’ first-year hitting coach said. “He’s moving to the ball in a calm manner. His head is really still. Not necessarily worried about the perfect swing.”
So the work is being put in and the adjustments will follow. Can the Cubs unlock what the Dodgers saw disappear over the past three seasons? No one on his new team is making proclamations about Bellinger in late March.
“I’m a look-forward-type guy,” manager Davis Ross said. “You know the talent is in there, [so] what he can bring every single day? He’s identified what he wants to work on. … I think he’s in a really good place.”
A new voice in the dugout and the hitting cage should help, but talk alone won’t bring the old Bellinger back. Asked what will, Bellinger kept it short and sweet — though the answer is undoubtedly much more complex.
“Long story short,” Bellinger said, “being comfortable with who I am, and understanding what made me good and getting back to it.”
SEWELL, N.J. — A few days after brothers John and Matthew Gaudreau died when they were struck by a driver while riding bicycles on the eve of their sister Katie’s wedding, family friends were visiting parents Guy and Jane at their home during a rainstorm. Looking outside after the skies cleared, they saw a double rainbow that brought them some momentary peace.
Since then, Jane Gaudreau had not gotten any signs she attributed to her sons, so she sat in their room Friday and asked them for some divine intervention to clear out bad weather in time for an event to honor their legacies. After a brief scare of a tornado watch the night before, a rainbow appeared Saturday morning about an hour before the sun came out for the inaugural Gaudreau Family 5K Walk/Run and Family Day.
“I was so relieved,” Jane said. “I was like, ‘Well, there’s my sign.'”
Thousands attended the event at Washington Lake Park in southern New Jersey, a place John and Matthew went hundreds of times as kids and around the corner from Hollydell Ice Arena, where they started playing hockey. Roughly 1,100 people took part in a walk or run in person, along with more than 1,300 virtually in the U.S., Canada and around the world.
“I think it speaks to them as a family, how close they were and how everybody loved being around them,” said Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk, one of a handful of NHL players who were close to the Gaudreaus and made a point to be there. “You just see the support from this community and from other players as well that are here and traveled in. It just says a lot about Johnny, Matty, their legacy and this family as a whole, how much support they have because they’re such amazing people.”
Along with honoring the NHL star known as “Johnny Hockey” and his younger brother who family and friends called Matty, the goal of the event was to raise money for an accessible playground at Archbishop Damiano School where Jane and her daughter Kristen work. It was a cause John and Matthew had begun to champion in honor of their grandmother Marie, who spent 44 years at the school and died in 2023.
It became their mother’s project after their deaths.
“Jane works every day with children with disabilities, and she knew how important it was for the playground to be built,” said family friend Deb Vasutoro, who came up with the idea for a 5K. “The playground has been a project for, I think, four or five years, and there just never was enough funding. When the boys passed and Jane needed a purpose, she thought, ‘Let’s build the playground.’ It was the perfect marriage of doing something good to honor the boys and seeing children laugh and smile.”
The Rev. Allain Caparas from Gloucester Catholic High School, which the brothers attended and played hockey for while growing up in Carneys Point, said raising funds for the playground is an extension of the impact they had on the community.
“They’re continuing to make a difference in the lives of so many others,” Caparas said. “Johnny and Matthew lived their lives with purpose, and now we’re celebrating that.”
Social media filled with mentions from folks in Columbus and Calgary, the NHL cities in which John Gaudreau played, and as far away as Ireland and Sweden. Paul O’Connor, who has been tight with the Gaudreau family from son Dalton being childhood best friends with Matthew, couldn’t empty out his inbox because he kept getting notifications about signups and donations.
“It just keeps growing,” O’Connor said. “And people that couldn’t be here, they’re doing a virtual [5K]. If they can’t do either, they’re just throwing money at the cause.”
Tears welled up in the eyes of Guy and Jane as they talked about the event. His speech to the crowd was brief and poignant at the same time.
“I’d like to thank everybody for coming,” Guy said after running the 5K. “It really means a lot to Jane and the girls and the family. We miss the boys, and it really means a lot for us to have you here to honor my boys. Thank you.”
The sea of people first in the rain and then the sunshine included folks in gear from all across hockey. Tkachuk wore a “Johnny Hockey” hoodie with Gaudreau’s name and No. 13 on the back.
He handed sticks, collected from various vigils in late August and early September, to race winners along with fellow players Erik Gudbranson, Zach Aston-Reese, Tony DeAngelo and Buddy Robinson.
“Our family wouldn’t have missed this,” Gudbranson said after flying in Friday night following a trip to Walt Disney World. “Hockey’s a very tight community. It’s still a tragedy. We miss the boys.”
The aim is to hold the event annually moving forward, potentially in Calgary and Columbus.
“We thought this was such a good thing to honor the boys we want to keep it up,” Jane said. “I just think each year it’ll just get better and better.”
Florida Panthers forwards Eetu Luostarinen and Anton Lundell will be ready for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday night in Edmonton, coach Paul Maurice said Saturday.
Both players were injured in Wednesday’s series-clinching Game 5 win against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Panthers forward A.J. Greer‘s status for the series opener against the Oilers remains uncertain. He missed Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals and was on the ice for only 4:22 in Game 5 due to a lower-body injury.
All three players did not participate in Saturday’s practice, the first team skate since the defending champions booked their spot in the Final rematch.
“I think the only question mark is Greer,” Maurice said. “We will list him as day to day. The other guys are fine. They will be back on the ice tomorrow when we do a little bit of an optional.”
Luostarinen, 26, recorded 24 points (9 goals, 15 assists) in 80 games during the regular season and 13 points (4 goals, 9 assists) in 17 games this postseason.
Lundell, 23, tallied 45 points (17 goals, 28 assists) in 79 games in the regular season and 12 points (5 goals, 7 assists) in 17 playoff games.
Greer, 28, posted 17 points (6 goals, 11 assists) in 81 games in the regular season and three points (2 goals, 1 assist) in 12 playoff contests.
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