The Dodgers plan to not tender Bellinger, opting to let him hit free agency rather than pay him an arbitration salary projected to reach $18 million, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Bellinger was on track to hit free agency after the 2023 season when the Dodgers retained him. The door remains open for Bellinger to return to the Dodgers. the team simply didn’t want to pay the price required to guarantee his return.
Cody Bellinger goes from NL MVP to non-contender
The decision cements one of the strangest falls from grace baseball has seen in recent years, even as the Dodgers went on to post 100-win seasons with him in center. Bellinger looked like one of MLB’s next big stars when he took home the MVP award after a season in which he hit .305/.406/.629 with 47 homers while playing above-average right field. What happened next was painful: a relatively down year in 2020, then two seasons with a combined .193/.256/.355 line and a 27.1 percent strikeout rate, up from 16.3 percent in 2019. Much of those struggles could be attributed to a dislocated right shoulder Bellinger suffered while celebrating a go-ahead homer in Game 7 of the 2020 NLCS against the Atlanta Braves. The long ball was arguably Bellinger’s best moment as a Dodger, but you can tell something is wrong with his shoulder after getting excited about his teammates. That shoulder has been a recurring problem for Bellinger, but the NLCS sprain ultimately required him to undergo surgery after the 2020 season. He hasn’t looked at the plate well since. That’s not to say Bellinger can’t play for the Dodgers, as he’s shown significant defensive value in recent years as a well-above-average center fielder, not to mention a positive presence in the Los Angeles clubhouse. His 2021 season was dismal, but he managed to post 1.2 bWAR this season. A center fielder with a glove who is barely passable at the plate isn’t what the Dodgers would have hoped for after 2019, and he probably isn’t worth $18 million, but he’s a player teams are still signing. Bellinger, still just 27 years old, believes he sees a decent market for teams with a hole in center field and hopes he can find some of his old magic as a player. There are worse lotteries out there. Cody Bellinger won MVP in 2019 and was fired by the Dodgers in 2022. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
