Superb start
Cody Bellinger isn’t 2017’s most recognized rookie, but he’s a key cog for the Dodgers,
While New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge has mesmerized the baseball world with his exploits, there’s another rookie slugger quietly performing extraordinary feats.
He might not be hitting the ball to the moon, let alone clearing the bleachers at 496 feet, but he’s clearing the fences.
He doesn’t lead the major leagues in home runs and hasn’t hit a homer farther than 433 feet, but with 15 homers and 35 RBI, he has more homers than everyone in baseball other than you-know-who since his April 25 call-up.
He also happens to be a star rookie playing for an iconic franchise on the other coast.
The name is Cody Bellinger.
The son of former Yankees utility man Clay Bellinger leads the Los Angeles Dodgers in homers and RBI despite having played in just 44 games. He became the first player in franchise history to hit 11 homers in his first 32 games. It took him 135 atbats to surpass his father’s career total of 12 homers.
“I always thought he could do this once he changed his swing,” Clay Bellinger, who has spent the last 11 years as a firefighter in Gilbert, Ariz., told USA TODAY Sports. “Now, if he can only get the same amount of World Series rings I got — or even more — I’ll be really happy.”
While Bellinger was merely a utility infielder, playing in 183 career games, he has three World Series rings, having played for the Yankees in 1999 and 2000 and the 2002 Los Angeles Angels.
“Yeah, I may have him in the home run department, but three rings?” says Cody Bellinger, who is 6-4 and 215 pounds. “Now, that’s tough to beat. Doing that would be a dream come true.”
Bellinger, drafted in the fourth round in 2013 by the Dodgers — three rounds and 92 selections after Judge — is the National League’s closest rookie version of Judge, without the fanfare. While Judge has an American League-leading 1.89 million All- Star votes and has Madison Avenue salivating, Bellinger isn’t on the All- Star ballot and is barely recognized outside Chavez Ravine. That’s fine with Bellinger, who is thrilled he at least attracted the attention of the Dodgers front office.
As stellar as Bellinger’s season has been, it certainly isn’t being hailed as one of the greatest in history the way Judge’s is. Bellinger entered Tuesday hitting .248 with a .906 on-baseplus-slugging percentage (OPS); Judge led the AL in batting average (.347) and homers (22) — and was one RBI shy of leading the other Triple Crown category — while boasting an OPS of 1.181.
Yet the Dodgers will argue that he’s just as valuable to them as Judge is to the Yankees.
“We certainly know we wouldn’t be here without him,” says Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, whose team entered Tuesday with the NL’s second-best record at 39-25. “This kid is a special young man. He’s a heck of a baseball player, a winning ballplayer, and he’s only going to get better.”
Bellinger came to the Dodgers’ rescue three weeks into the season when outfielder Joc Pederson went on the disabled list. Bellinger promptly became the first Dodgers player in history to hit five homers in his first 11 games. He was shuffled to first base when Adrian Gonzalez went on the DL for the first time in his career. Gonzalez returned, but Bellinger stayed, and he was inserted as the Dodgers’ everyday left fielder. Now, Bellinger is expected to be back at first base with Gonzalez returning to the DL on Tuesday with what he called a herniated disk.
“This guy is a great athlete,” Dodgers veteran second baseman Chase Utley says of Bellinger. “I think you could put him any- where, and he’d be OK, just based on what kind of athlete he is.”
The Dodgers, truth be known, saw his athleticism when he was in Little League. That is where Logan White, a former Dodgers vice president, saw him playing with his own son in Chandler, Ariz. White followed him through high school, and, when the draft came along, told then-general manager Ned Colletti he was the perfect fourthround pick. Bellinger had hit just one home run his senior year, but White thought that he would fill out his 6-4 frame and eventually hit for power.
“I wish I was this good of a scout to predict this,” says White, now the San Diego Padres’ pro scouting director. “We certainly liked him, but I didn’t think he would run into this kind of power. He was just a skinny dude, maybe 6-2, 175 pounds, but he had a beautiful swing.
“But, to be honest, a lot of it was luck. I was able to see him grow up. He was in my backyard at the hitting cage. Just everything worked out.”
Bellinger left high school as a smooth, left-handedhitting first baseman who sprayed the ball to all fields. Little changed in his first two years in the minors, as he had four homers after 98 games. It was time, he said, for a severe overhaul.
He closed his batting stance, tilted his bat toward the pitcher before each pitch, created backspin on balls, and the power immediately flourished.
He hit 30 homers in 2015 at Class A Rancho Cucamonga (Calif.), 26 homers last year at Class AA Tulsa and Class AAA Oklahoma City, and now he’s doing it on the big stage.
“I don’t know if you can ever envision 30, 35 homers a year,” Clay Bellinger says. “But I always envi- sioned a lot more than he did in high school. He was always a line-drive hitter. So I thought that if he can find a way to change that swing path, that would change.
“Well, those same line drives now are going over the fence.”
Says Cody, breaking into a shy, sheepish grin: “It’s a crazy game, isn’t it? I was just trying to do what I could to have a successful year, and this happens.”
Bellinger, perhaps the favorite to win the NL rookie of the year award, reminds the Dodgers of last year’s rookie of the year winner, shortstop Corey Seager. Both have quiet demeanors, constantly listen to the veterans and rarely speak.
“He’s got a lot of similar qualities as Corey coming up,” Utley says. “He’s really quiet, humble, but confident on the baseball field. He wants to learn as much as possible.”
Says Dodgers infielderoutfielder Kike Hernandez, “We’ve always had a very big group of young, talented kids in the minor leagues. (Pitcher) Julio Urias was the one everyone talked about. But Bellinger had that explosive bat speed, and that explosive pop. So, to be honest, for those of us who were watching him, you knew he had the ability to be a very special player.”
It took awhile for the Dodgers to believe it. They tried five starting left fielders before Bellinger. Finally, they gave him a shot, and Bellinger has outlasted them all.
He certainly appears to be here to stay.
“When I got called up, I kept telling myself I was going to take it day by day, and not worry about how long it would last,” says Bellinger, who turns 22 during the All-Star break. “Well, it’s worked so far, so I’m not going to change anything. I just want to help this team win any way I can, just like my dad.
“It’s funny, of all the games I went to as a kid, the ones I remember most of all are those World Series games in New York, especially when they beat the Mets in 2000. That’s what sticks out most to me, going to that parade and seeing his World Series rings.
“I’d sure like to get one of those of my own.”