Cubs sign Bellinger

[Transmogrified Tiger]

No word on if it's Cody or Colby tho

 

[Transmogrified Tiger]

[itisallpartoftheplan]

A move!

[Post Count Padder]

In my head I was thinking 2/30 so that's not terribly unreasonable on a one year deal. The defense should give him a decent floor for the season. Hope that bat turns around.

 

Things are happening!

[jersey cubs fan]

Sweet, an awful player!

[Tryptamine]

17.5m, gross.

[SpongeWorthy]

is there any reason to be confident he can turn it around at the plate

 

my initial reaction is that he’s leaving the best player development environment in the league and still sucked ass so what hope is there here

[17 Seconds]

it's fine, but it's another 40 degree day

[soccer10k]

I’m now seeing a report that he just struck out in the batting cage just now.

[sneakypower]

imo it's a great move for this roster, that needs to hit on a few lottery tickets to compete in '23

[Tryptamine]

What is the upside play here? If you think you're going to be competitive this year, you don't blow almost 20m on a guy with this many question marks and even if he's good, then you have to pay him full fa rate next year.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

imo it's a great move for this roster, that needs to hit on a few lottery tickets to compete in '23

 

Yeah it's basically the same reason I liked Nimmo, you can roll the dice on star upside, in Nimmo's case it's about health and Bellinger is about ungoofing his swing. If he gets the swing fixed at all he'll be worth it and maybe help them take a leap, and even if he treads water he's a QO candidate they can recoup investment on that way.

[17 Seconds]

seems like a move made to create maddening twitter discourse

[David]

No shift should help him if he stops trying so hard to hit the ball in the air

[Cubswin11]

Love it, CF defense was a major problem last year. Even a minor bump with the bat out of him improves the roster.

[Rex Buckingham]

Should at least provide very good CF defense, and hopefully a cromulent amount of offense against RHP. Don't let him hit against any lefties.

[jersey cubs fan]

Should at least provide very good CF defense, and hopefully a cromulent amount of offense against RHP. Don't let him hit against any lefties.

Cubs needed another Heyward like Heyward needed another hole in his swing

[Bertz]

is there any reason to be confident he can turn it around at the plate

 

my initial reaction is that he’s leaving the best player development environment in the league and still sucked ass so what hope is there here

 

No reason to count on a turnaround. He's young enough and his struggles are so clearly tied to that specific injury that it's not hard to see a comeback, but there's no "a ha he was secretly really good last year!" under the hood.

 

It's hard to grade this move until we see what else happens. If he's like the 4th biggest move we make I'll be ecstatic, but if the offseason ends up like Bellinger, Vazquez, Matt Carpenter and a bunch of pitching it is gonna be ugly next year.

[Bertz]

[David]

but if the offseason ends up like Bellinger, Vazquez, Matt Carpenter and a bunch of pitching it is gonna be ugly next year.

 

good thing it's not gonna be that

[Transmogrified Tiger]

 

I always forget how buyouts are handled for LT purposes but since mutual options are never exercised it seems intentional

 

EDIT: Roster Resource counts the full 17.5 towards LT payroll, so the buyout structure is probably a cashflow thing

[Andy]

17.5M seems like an awful lot to bet on someone bouncing back without compelling evidence he will.

[CubinNY]

It’s a veneer move unless they make some bigger moves. They can trade him at the deadline if he’s good and they aren’t. Kind of like the last few years. Hopefully Davis is healthy and crushing AAA by the ASB.

[17 Seconds]

17.5M seems like an awful lot to bet on someone bouncing back without compelling evidence he will.

 

wasn't he close to being worth 17.5 last year even while sucking? he doesn't really have to bounce back that much for it to be worth it.

[David]

17.5M seems like an awful lot to bet on someone bouncing back without compelling evidence he will.

 

He was "worth" 13.5 in like 140g last year despite being abysmal at the plate

 

(standard disclaimer about using $/WAR on low WAR guys but yeah it's not a lot of money)