Dodgers: Cody Bellinger No Longer Viewed as Every Day Starter
The Dodgers are quickly running out of time to make a run for the division title, and they know it. With only 53 games left in the regular season, there is no time to waste if they hope to catch the Giants and avoid a one-game Wild Card scenario.
This brings us to Cody Bellinger, who has been having a nightmare-ish season as he tries to work his way back from offseason shoulder surgery following the team’s World Series run in 2020. Having only played in 50 games to this point, Cody is hitting a lowly .168 with almost no power to make up for it.
It seems as if time has run out for Cody, as manager Dave Roberts announced on Friday afternoon that the All-Star outfielder would be relegated to a platoon situation going forward.
I think right now we have a lot of good players, and in the near future I see Cody playing against right-handers. We’ve got a lot of good options to play against lefties, as you can see tonight.
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The move coincides with the expected activation of Trea Turner, who can play all over the field and should slide right in near the top of the order and produce. This move isn’t meant to imply that the team has given up on Cody by any means. If anything, they are doing him a favor by trying to help him focus on the areas that give him the best chance to succeed and gain his confidence back.
Dave Roberts did his best to remain diplomatic during his press conference, but his words rang loud and clear, even though he kept Cody’s name out of them as much as he could.
Every single night there’s going to be a great player that’s not getting the start, and that’s just kind of where we’re at. I’ll divy up playing time with workload, but right now where we’re at on the schedule, we have to win baseball games. We’re four games back in the loss column and we have to win. Every single night, with respect to workload and workload management, I need to put the best guys out there that I feel can win a ballgame that night.
You have to give him credit for trying his damnedest to fight through the adversity, but something is clearly not right with the former MVP. No number of swing changes or stance alterations can heal a player, and it looks like Bellinger has yet to fully recover from his surgery back in November.
The hope is for Cody to have some time to continue to build up his arm strength while also working on his mechanics to finish the season. If he can find some consistency at the plate, he should once again find himself in the middle of the lineup come October.
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I fear that when Nellinger is in the lineup, CT3, Pollock will be sacrificed but I sure hope Roberts doesn’t do the stupid thing by sitting Trea Turner. The guy has a .322 BA at the moment so he MUST be in there against all comers. If JT needs an occasional day , ok I get that.
Correction, Bellinger not Nellinger, LOL.
Point taken.
No Nellinger sounds right as in no hits llinger lol ?
the dodgers have all the pitchers they need , the left handed pitchers they have put out there are really bad, except gozo , i see julio and price with gozo , in the pen soon … please do not over use julio … like donnie baseball did with jansen … we have 5 great players who need to out there every day ,,, max muncy and cory seager are not one of them … PS justin Turner is not one of them , i see cory or nolan A at third next year ..and trea at short … cody will be fine , next year … if cory wants to play shortstop , next year … let him go to texas or seattle .. let all the players , hurt , fully heal … MLB wants to control who goes to the big dance , trying to turn baseball into basketball and football , which both are losing every year their viewership … leave baseball alone , football games are 30 minutes longer than baseball games, right now … thank you for last year , guys .. rest yourselves for 2022 and the all star games in LA .. i see 5 rings in ten years , in LA .. rest the boys in blue …dont do what donnie did to jansen , or what the padres are doing to the thug Tatis !!!
More excuses.Cody needs to build up his arm strength because of his shoulder surgery and this is why he’s not hitting.My eye tells me that there is nothing wrong with his bat speed.Analytics should also give you the facts.Cody needs a complete hitting overhaul!
Trade him.. he dod little last season and even less this one
I keep hearing about all these swing +batting stance changes but don’t seeeee any. He still crowds the plate. He still swings for the fences causing more SO’s. He still has the elevated swing causing more SO’s and pop-ups. He still hits into the shift when he actually hits the ball instead of hitting to all fields or even laying down a bunt to beat it. I blame Roberts as much as Belli for this. He is the supposed manager and he needs to tell his hitters what they need to do to improve themselves or bench them
Send him to Tulsa and bring up Justin Yurchak. Or just send him anywhere, but not in the starting lineup. Not an every day player right now? Really? Why, because he’s hitting .170 and in a two year slump? What he need is a surgeon to remove his head from his you know what.
It is about time that Bellinger should be out of the line up more often than in the lineup. He has done close to nothing specially in close ball games. Also, if the dodgers keep on losing one run games it would be difficult for them to even make the playoffs. I cannot see them getting to the world series even with all their additions. It seems that this year they just don’t have the passion to go over the top. maybe they are pampered too much, losing to the giants who have mostly no name players and misfits/rejects from other teams. Too bad !!!!!! This is a big insult to the highly paid players that they have ( which is almost everybody on the team ) with Chris Taylor as their ” star player” , one of the lowest paid dodger. Maybe all their salaries should be cut in half then probably we could see more production.
Freinds
dont expect Roberts, who is a tactically inept, to do what he should do, stop playing Bellinger.
What Bellinger should do to resurrect his career is hire the same hitting coached that saved Max Muncy’s career. Prediction: he won’t…he will squander his talent..be out of the league after one good contract, if that long
The main question here is considering all of their sabermetrics, when are they going to realize that he is done, the league has caught up to his ridiculous swing and all those holes, he has no right being on the roster.