The Cody Bellinger Hate Is Starting to Get Out of Hand
Trey really doesn’t like Cody Bellinger. We’re almost talking about Russell Westbrook levels of disdain for the Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder. He didn’t like when Bellinger complained about the Astros cheating scandal two years ago. Ten months ago, he wrote that Bellinger was massively overrated and made some fair criticisms of deficiencies in his game. Then, a little over a month ago, Trey stopped beating around the bush and decided that Cody Bellinger just flat out sucks at baseball. In my opinion, this is getting a little out of hand.
This season has been the worst of Cody Bellinger’s career, and he has certainly opened the door to criticism because of that. Hitting below .200 is not something anyone can defend. But as far as whether or not Bellinger “sucks,” I have to disagree.
Cody Bellinger Is Having a Down Year, But He Isn’t Bad at Baseball
Over a 162-game sample size, Bellinger is averaging 38 home runs and 99 runs batted in for his career. He has a career .879 OPS and 133 OPS+. Those OPS stats would each rank in the top 15 for current players if Bellinger hit the necessary requirements for plate appearances (he’s about one full season short). That’s really good offensive production. Sure, he hasn’t been good this season, but this year seems to be an outlier given his career to now.
At the end of the day, Cody Belllinger has a .879 career OPS, two All-Star appearances at a stacked position, an NL Rookie of the Year Award, NL MVP Award, and NLCS MVP Award, all in five seasons. You’re never going to convince me that someone with that list of accolades is bad at baseball. Criticisms of his swing are certainly valid. His uppercut swing has become exaggerated of late, leading to more pop flies and fewer line drives. Despite that, Belllinger has been an above-average hitter every season but this one, and he has been downright elite in two of his five seasons. Yes, he’s struggled this season coming off an injury, but he’s the type of player I want on my team. There’s no way I accept a take that says he’s bad at baseball, because he’s just not.
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