FREE AGENCY DIDN’T GO ANYWHERE
Bellinger failed to hit it big but he’s happy to stay a Cub
MESA, Ariz. — Cody Bellinger’s free agency dragged into spring training, and it ended without the $100-million deal he sought.
The process led him back to the Chicago Cubs, though, and that was enough to leave the slugger smiling.
“I’m super happy that it worked out the way it did,” Bellinger said this week at a news conference after signing an $80-million, threeyear contract.
Teammates wanted Bellinger back after he had a strong comeback season at Wrigley Field last year. Management wanted him back too. Bellinger had hoped for a longer contract, but he and agent Scott Boras settled for a shorter one that includes opt-outs after the first two seasons, and his focus was on the reunion with Chicago when he spoke Wednesday.
“I’m very excited with it all and very happy to get going,” Bellinger said.
Boras attended the news conference and sat at Bellinger’s side, with Cubs president Jed Hoyer on the other. Baseball’s most famous agent still has three other high-profile players on the market in pitchers Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery and slugger Matt Chapman.
Boras compared free agency to “a turkey and a thermometer.”
“You have to go in, see what the temperature is and evaluate it,” Boras said. “And Cody and I agreed that we’re going to look at this in a couple ways. Jed was very clear that they [wanted him to stay]. With this kind of structure and flexibility, this is what we were looking for.
“We have some irregularity going on in this current market. We have close to 11 teams that are spending less money than a year ago on competitiveness when we have record revenues in baseball.”
Boras has long been willing to drag clients’ free agencies into spring training — most famously with Bryce Harper in 2019 before signing a $330-million, 13-year deal with Philadelphia. Boras said Wednesday that owners sometimes like to get to camp, evaluate and act at that time.
“Each team functions in their own way,” he said. “You have owners who want to be directly involved with the roster and negotiations, and then you have owners like the Cubs who operate in a different way. We have a great communication system with the Cubs.”
Hoyer said talks had been going on for a while.
“With Scott and me, we can take the conversation back in July,” Hoyer said. “My comments to him about Cody have never wavered. We probably talked more often than Scott would have liked.
“I think with any negotiation, sometimes there’s a misperception that we just fire offers back and forth. There’s a lot of talking about what each side wanted, and over the last five to seven days, we kind of targeted a deal that made sense for both sides.”
Bellinger is entering his eighth season, all but last year with the Dodgers. He was National League rookie of the year in 2017 and most valuable player in 2019, when he hit 47 home runs and drove in 115 runs with a .305 average and .409 on-base percentage. He also won a Gold Glove in right field.
Shoulder surgery and other injuries contributed to a dramatic slump in his final three years with the Dodgers — he hit .203 with 41 homers in 1,032 at-bats with a .648 on-base-plus-slugging percentage. He was not offered a contract after 2022 and signed a $17.5-million, oneyear deal with the Cubs, hoping a bounce-back year would lead to a long-term contract. Bellinger certainly performed, hitting .307 with 26 homers and a career-high 20 stolen bases. He finished 10th in NL MVP voting.
The Cubs were considered favorites to get Bellinger back throughout the winter.
“I guess I was always very optimistic,” shortstop Dansby Swanson said. “This is something that we all asked for, maybe me more specifically during the offseason.
“He fits our team in so many different areas, can close so many different holes whether it’s defensively or offensively.”
Bellinger will make $27.5 million this year. He has a $27.5-million player option for 2025 with a $2.5-million buyout that would be payable Dec. 31.
There is a $25-million player option for 2026 with a $5-million buyout that would be payable in equal installments on Jan. 15, 2026, and Jan. 15, 2027.
First-year manager Craig Counsell feels he knows Bellinger from across the field during Counsell’s previous job managing the Milwaukee Brewers. He’s just getting to know him on a personal level.
The most impressive thing about Bellinger, Counsell said, is “his ability to play multiple positions at a high level. A multiposition everyday player, left-handed hitter, obviously proven, going to hit in the middle of the lineup. That’s hard to find and we’re lucky to get him.”