Insider Explains Why Cody Bellinger Isn’t Signed Yet

He’s the biggest bat still out there on the free-agent market… So why hasn’t Cody Bellinger been signed yet? Former major league GM and insider for MLB Network Steve Phillips says it all comes down to the excessive demand that Bellinger and his agent Scott Boras are asking, particularly when it comes to contract length.

When you’re in the room with your (front office) staff… ‘What’s everybody think of Cody Bellinger?’ There’s some people that are gonna say, ‘oh wow what a year he had this year, he really bounced back. He looked like that MVP guy of a few years ago’… But I don’t know anybody who can predictably tell me that he’s fixed… His hitting went into witness protection for two years. It disappeared. It went away. So you’re gonna have a split room. He’s gonna want an eight year contract. There’s no way I’d give him an eight year contract! So I think that’s the hold up in all this.

Bellinger was a two-time All-Star with the Los Angeles Dodgers including winning MVP in 2019 when he blasted 47 home runs with 115 RBIs and a 1.035 OPS. But in 2021 and 2022 his OPS sunk to about .600 and his production was a fraction of what it was in his MVP season.

In 2023 with the Chicago Cubs, Bellinger bounced back big time, batting .307, with 26 homers, 97 RBIs and an .881 OPS.

And so we wait, with teams like the Toronto Blue Jays, the San Francisco Giants and the incumbent Cubs trying to top the others while coming to a reasonable agreement.

 Photo: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports