After a long wait this offseason, Cody Bellinger finally re-signed with the Chicago Cubs just before the season started after having a strong renaissance season in 2023 with a career-high .307 batting average, 20 steals, and his most home runs since 2019 after three straight disastrous seasons to finish his tenure with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
He is starting to round into form after a slow start to the season, which is no surprise given how late he signed in the offseason, and one insider has shared an interesting stat that shows just how vital Bellinger has already been to the team’s success thus far.
MLB Network’s Jon Morosi shared that Chicago is 17-11 with Bellinger in the starting lineup and 7-7 without him so far, adding that this is the evidence that Bellinger is the difference between Chicago being a playoff team versus an average team.
Bellinger was hitting a paltry .167 through April 13 but is now back up to .255 with seven homers and 21 RBI already with an .827 OPS.
He put together a 9-game hitting streak after his average dropped that low and is hitting .346 so far in May with a 1.047 OPS.
Chicago is off to a nice start overall at 24-18 and sitting second in the NL Central just half a game behind the Milwaukee Brewers.
Bellinger’s bat has been vital, as he and Mike Tauchman are the only players with an OPS over .800, aside from Seiya Suzuki who has missed about half the year with injury so far.
Bellinger is in the first year of his new 3-year, $80 million deal and is proving to be worth every penny so far.