This offseason has been heavily centered on Cody Bellinger for the Chicago Cubs. The offseason began with a bit of a disappointment when Bellinger opted into his $27.5 million option late in offseason last year, just before Spring Training began. The offseason following the 2023 season had Cody Bollinger as one of the most coveted free agents, this landed him into one of the most important groups by the end of the offseason, "The Boras Four". This group consisted of 2023 Cy Young Awards Winner Blake Snell, World Series winning starting pitch Jordan Montgomery, star 3rd baseman Matt Chapman, and of course Cody Bellinger. All got signed relatively late in the offseason, most taking short-term deals with an opt-out quickly. For two, it has gone great, the two that signed with the Giants in fact. Matt Chapman and Blake Snell, Chapman started the season right on time, being the member of the four to sign the earliest, after a stellar beginning of the season for a floundering Giants team, he secured a 6 year, 151 million dollar extension to be one of the cornerstones in the hopeful next Giants dynasty, along with what looks to be Willy Adames after his 7 year, 182 million contract that was reported by Jeff Passan of ESPN earlier today. Snell ended up starting the season late, but rebounded heavy in the second half, and earned himself a 5 year, 182 million dollar contract with none other than the heavy spending and reigning World Series champion Dodgers. Jordan Montgomery and Cody Bellinger have fared worse. Montgomery started the season late and ended doing so poorly he was demoted to the bullpen, but Bollinger will be the main focus here.

Cody Bellinger signed a one year, 17.5 million dollar prove it deal with the Cubs after being non-tendered by the Dodgers, who couldn't afford to have Bellinger's bat in the lineup any more, after he slashed .203/.272/.376 with them between the 2020 and 2022 seasons. Bellinger joined a Cubs team looking to make a turnaround who had also signed Jameson Taillon to a hefty deal that offseason, and despite losing fan-favorite (at the time) Willson Contreras, had decent playoff hopes. The season started out poorly for the Cubs and Bellinger, who started decently in the first month of the season, but would battle injuries between May and June while also not hitting a single home run between those 2 months. July hit and the Cubs were 38-42, with little playoff odds and Bellinger's flyer looking like a failure. Unlike the normal Cubs sputter off in the dog days of summer though, that's when this team took off. By the beginning of August the Cubs had improved to 54-53 and just 4 games out of first in the NL central. Bellinger went off in July as well, hitting 8 home runs with 21 runs batted in, and a whopping .400 batting average across the healthy 26 games he played. In August the Cubs continued to steam ahead, as Bellinger hit another 5 home runs, this time with 20 runs batted in a .324 batting average, and things started looking up for the Cubs too as they would improve greatly this month, going to 72-63, and while they had a small chance to beat the Brewers out in the division, they were 2 games up for the 2nd wildcard spot in the NL. Unfortunately, we know what ended up happening, the Cubs would not finished strong, failing in September yet again, finishing the season 83-79, 1 game away from October baseball. This may have been a blemish for Bellinger, but his stats sure weren't, as he had proved that 17.5 million dollars at this point, hitting 26 home runs, driving in 97, stole 20 bags, and hit .307 en route to a 10th place NL MVP finish and a Silver Slugger. Now the big question was, where will Bellinger take his services in free agency?

Many teams were in on Bellinger, evidently after he had fixed his swing, and looked as close to his 2019 NL MVP form as he ever had. The bidding ended up coming down to 3 main teams, the New York Yankees, San Francisco Giants, and Chicago Cubs. The Cubs were not the favorite of this group, they had the least money to spend, and Bellinger was from out west and wanted to win, two ideals the Cubs did not fit. The Yankees were mostly out after making the trade for Juan Soto, and after signing Matt Chapman the Giants went for Snell instead of Bollinger, leaving him for the Cubs. He would make 27.5 million in 2024, 27.5 million in 2025, and 25 million in 2026, with opt outs in-between both years, a previously mentioned commonplace for the Boras Four. Now, Bellinger was widely looked at as the star for this team, the Cubs picked up Japanese star Shota Imanaga in the offseason, and had much bigger playoff hopes than the year before, and as we know, yet again those hopes were not fulfilled. Bellinegr would deal with oblique, rib, and wrist injuries over the course of the season, and while that limited his playing time he wasn't great while he was playing. Bellinger was originally looked at as a good fit for the Cubs as their two needs were his positions, center field and first base. Now, that has changed after breakout seasons from Michael Busch and Pete-Crow Armstrong. Bellinger would end the season much worse than the last, hitting 18 home runs, 78 runs batted in, a much lower .266 batting average, and an OPS+ that went from 139 to 111, and a bWAR that was cut in half from 4.4 to 2.2. This left the question of Bellinger's offseason option on the table.

To the slight demise of Cubs fans, Bellinger opted into his 2nd straight year of 27.5 million dollars on November 2nd of this year. This wasn't much of a surprise after his slight let down of a season, but definitely disappointing for Cubs fans who had rumblings of the Cubs on a tight budget. These rumblings were true, the Cubs were operating with around 55 million until the first apron, and the likely of owner Tom Ricketts was to stay around 10 million under that, and with 45 million dollars left, not much room is there to get a big name pitcher, along with other needs the Cubs have like bullpen help and catcher, which have been addressed thus far with Eli Morgan and Matt Thaiss via the trade, but Cubs fans are definitely hoping for more. This is where trading Cody Bellinger comes into play. The trade rumors started to slightly come into fruition on November 22nd, when the Athletics Shadev Sharma reported that the “top tier of the starting pitching market has been ruled out.” for the Cubs because of financial constraints. since this time period, rumors have gone everywhere mostly circulated around the Yankees, Astros, and Mariners. the Yankees could use Bellinger with their holes in right field and first base currently. The 'Stros also have a hole at first and could use Bellinger to try to replace current free agent Alex Bregman's spot in the lineup. The Mariners have mainly been in contention as Bellinger got thrown in some trades with them as the Mariners try to offload Luis Castillo's contract. For the Cubs, this would definitely be a hit to their lineup to trade him, Bellinger is one of a few bats in the Cubs lineup you could easily see hitting in the middle of order, and trading him away to upgrade the pitching rotation would be difficult as the Cubs offense was worse than their staff last year. We'll see what the Cubs decide to do with their former star, and if they keep him, I don't think Cubs fans would be all that mad.