You would have to be living under a rock to not notice that Dodgers outfielder / first baseman and reigning 2019 National League MVP Cody Bellinger is not hitting anything like he has in seasons past.

During the quarantine, the 25-year-old Scottsdale, AZ native and Dodgers fourth-round draft pick in 2013 out of Hamilton High School in Chandler, AZ took time off to focus on changing his batting stance. It has been widely reported that even though he posted an outstanding .305 / .406 / .629 / 1.035 slash line with 47 homers and 115 RBI in 2019, he was unhappy with his swing during the second half of the season. But after nine games into the coronavirus-shortened 60-game 2020 season, Belli is slashing a dismal .139 / .205 / .167 / .372 and has yet to go yard, with only one extra-base hit (a double) and two RBI.

Bellinger has been in the starting lineup since the start of the 2020 season until Saturday night’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Fied. During his pre-game (Zoom) press conference on Saturday afternoon, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told the media that he was giving Bellinger Saturday night off.

“He wanted to be in there tonight, but I just felt that just to give him a little blow, get Matt Beaty in there, give him some at-bats and get Cody back in there [on Sunday].”

The real question is, what is causing Cody’s slow start? Roberts had an answer for that as well.

“The contact rate is still good; the angle trajectory is not where we want it to be, he’s not punching (striking out),” Roberts explained. “I don’t think he looks comfortable; he’s still trying to figure some things out. There are some calls that could go either way that could flip counts; he’s on the wrong side of those. This is the way it goes sometimes. It’s one of those things that’s just more magnified now. He’ll work through it. Hopefully, today he eases his mind, but also get some work in.”

As he and every good manager does, Roberts is confident that his MVP, former Rookie of the Year, two-time All-Star, Gold Glover, Silver Slugger, and 2019 NLCS MVP will find and fix whatever it is that is holding him back thus far.

“I think that Cody was very confident in what he came to summer camp with,” Roberts said. “I expect good things to happen. You never really know until you face live pitching. You always try to tweak things. I’m very confident that he’ll find some comfort1 in his swing. I know the production will be there.”

It would be great to see Bellinger get up to bat in Sunday’s series finale against the Diamondbacks and hit a home run – or two. It may take him some time to (re) re-adjust his stance and feel more confident in his swing – time that is limited in such a short season. But hopefully, he can find his rhythm and start hitting like Mookie Betts, who also started the 2020 season a bit slow but is tearing it up of late.

Let’s Play Ball!

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