The Case of Cody Bellinger
By I am fascinated by the absolute collapse of Dodgers outfielder Cody Bellinger.
What about this makes any sense? They guy was a phenom rookie who followed it up with a very solid second season and then an absolutely monster third season. This is one of the best seasons any player has had since Bonds retired. He was 24 years old. He could be the next Bonds!
And then……you can’t really blame anyone for 2020. He was not terrible, though not good. Nothing maybe to worry about. But in 2021 he was one of the very worst players in baseball at age 26. How do you go from .305/406/629 to .165/240/302 in two years???? OK, he wasn’t fully healthy. But he’s sure been heathly this year and he’s……marginally average after a half season hitting .209/271/379???
Bellinger’s WAR fell by 10.5 WAR in 2 seasons. This has to be a record. And it would be one thing if a guy was 28, peaked, and then sucked by 30. But he’s 27 years now in the middle of his 3rd bad season in a row!!!!
I am very confused. There’s a bunch of articles from last offseason but nothing particularly definitive. And while he’s still major league player quality this year, it’s not like he’s…..good. And I don’t see a lot about his still pretty bad season this year.
Thoughts?