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Dodgers: Dave Roberts Not Worried About Cody Bellinger’s Slow Restart

A quick preface here: it’s been only two games since Cody Bellinger came off the injured list and rejoined the Dodgers’ active roster. In those two games, however, the slugger has gone 0-7 with 4 strikeouts prompting immediate concern from fans. Strangely.

One person who is not concerned — and probably the main person that matters — is manager Dave Roberts. Before first pitch against the visiting Cardinals on Monday, the skipper shared his thoughts on what he’s seen out of Belli so far.



I love the compete in the box. … Cody’s fine. I don’t think I can come in and expect him to just go out there and catch fire. I think he expects that from himself, which is great. But him being a presence and playing Gold Glove defense just makes us better in itself. As he continues to accrue at-bats, he’ll be just fine.

Despite playing a few games early in April, this feels more like the true start of the season for Cody. After getting a late start in spring training following offseason shoulder surgery, the outfielder played in only 10 Cactus League games. And into the regular season, he started 4 of the first 5 games before being shut down with a leg injury. He rehabbed away from the team for 50-something days and saw only 5 games at the Triple-A level before returning to LA.

Related: Cody Bellinger Reveals He’s Not Felt Like Part of the Team in 2021

With all the start and stop, it may still take a few more games over the next week or two before Cody can dial in his swing and start doing damage in the middle of the lineup. For now, it seems that patience will be a virtue for everybody involved.

NEXT: Why is Mookie Betts Struggling This Season? Is it Time to Worry?

Clint Pasillas

Clint Pasillas has been writing, blogging, and podcasting about the Los Angeles Dodgers since 2008. Under Clint's leadership as the Lead Editor, Dodgers Nation has grown into one of the most read baseball sites in the world with millions of unique visitors per month. Find him online on Twitter/X or his YouTube channel!

9 Comments

    1. Yes! Why would you put him in the 4 spot! At least wait until he gets a hit! Take the expectations off of him by batting him 6,7 or 8. Past performance does not guarantee future success. We might have already seen his best stretch.

  1. This isn’t a slow restart. It’s a continuation of his start to the season. Looked overmatched most of last year. The league has a plan against him. He needs to rework jos approach and plan at the plate.
    Another o fer with 2 more k’s last night. Not a slump, it’s a serous problem he needs to solve

  2. That’s one of the many problems of Roberts. Try 3 more SOs in 4ABs with a walk. And Roberts puts him in the clean-up spot. Haven’t seen all his ABs but he still can’t handle the inside slider down in the zone. Except for one great run early in the 2019 season, he has at best been an average hitter with some pop in his bat. Until he stops swinging for the fences on every pitch this is all he will be.

  3. Silver lining….would have been a lot worse if they signed him to a long term contact. Maybe it’s me, but he looks a bit loopy compared to earlier days. Personal life distractions? Needs to move back in with the folks ?

  4. His thinking is like when he was in little league where he was the only home run hitter on the team. It’s a hit or miss…. or guess and miss. A total awkward and awful swing mechanics. Looks like a second coming of a RH Dave Kingman w/ triple the KO’s to HR’s.

  5. He was only battng .200 at his AAA rehabilitation.

    Apparently him and zach needed to to spend more time in AAA rehabilitating with cody working on his swing.

    Move off the damn plate! and stop swinging for the fences.

    And please, dodgers, stop making excuses.

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