Bellinger returns
The Dodgers slugger shows off a new-look stance and says his shoulder is strong.
GLENDALE, ARIZ. » The shoulder looks fine. The stance? Well, that looks ... different.
Cody Bellinger saw his first action in a Cactus League game on Tuesday after undergoing surgery on his right shoulder in November. The procedure was aimed at stabilizing the joint. Bellinger has popped his right shoulder out of its socket multiple times — most notably after sharing an exuberant forearm bash with Kiké Hernandez following Bellinger’s go-ahead home run in Game 7 of the NL Championship Series.
Bellinger has been taking batting practice and hitting in intrasquad games but went 0 for 3 with a strikeout and two ground outs in his first Cactus League action Tuesday.
“Felt really good. Shoulder felt great,” Bellinger said. “It just felt great getting into a game with the guys again, in front of some fans.”
However, the weeks Bellinger spent unable to pick up a bat while his shoulder healed have left their mark. Bellinger said he had “a lot of downtime” to re-think his stance and swing and came back with a much more open stance, his right hip pulled back toward the first-base dugout. He said he adopted the changes as soon as he was cleared to start swinging in the batting cage this winter.
“I’m just playing with what I feel is good for me. I feel confident with it,” Bellinger said Tuesday.
“I had quite a lot of downtime so I had a lot of time to think . ... I’ve done it in the past, had success with it and I mean, to be honest — honestly, I just feel really good with it.”
Bellinger also made some changes when he returned from last year’s “downtime” when the sport was shut down for four months by the pandemic. Though he adjusted along the way, the results were not good. His slash line in 2020 (.239/.333/.455) dropped significantly from his 2019 production (.305/.406/.629). After winning the MVP in 2019, his OPS dropped nearly 250 points in the shortened 2020 regular season.
“I think he’s a very feeldriven guy. Right now, he feels better a little more open. So that’s where we are right now with that,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
“He and the hitting guys talk all the time about mechanics, approach and the feel of the hitter and how each guy is feeling individually . ... I think ideally you’d want some guys to kind of have one set stance and always feel comfortable. But that’s not the case. We still have plenty of time to figure out where he wants to be when the season starts. And that could change. Again, that’s kind of how Cody is feeling.”
Bellinger wouldn’t be specific about what prompted the change or what might have driven his reasoning other than his “comfort” explanation.
The most glaring difference between Bellinger’s 2019 and 2020 was the way he handled fastballs. He ate them up in 2019, batting .328 with 31 of his 47 home runs on fastballs. Last year, he hit just .236 with only three home runs off fastballs (according to Statcast measures) while actually seeing a higher percentage of them.
“I actually didn’t know that,” Bellinger said when told pitchers attacked him with more fastballs in 2019.
“I mean, it worked last year for them. That’s probably why they did it.”
Bellinger didn’t handle breaking balls particularly well in 2020 either, batting .191 against them after hitting .244 in 2019. His new stance does allow him to track pitches more directly, perhaps an advantage in recognizing breaking stuff sooner. But it also requires “a bigger move” (as Roberts put it) to get squared up to the hitting zone.
“It was more about how I felt. Nothing to where the pitchers attacked me,” Bellinger said of his changes. “It’s all about comfort and I believe in it.”
Kershaw Day
Three-time Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw has once again been named the Dodgers’ Opening Day starter. He has missed the past two openers with injuries. But if he makes the start on April 1 in Colorado, it will extend his franchise record to nine Opening Day starts.
“Well, it is just one game of 162. But it is a special thing I think just with the guys that have done it in the past with the Dodgers,” Kershaw said. “There’s just the history behind it and what it means, starting the baseball season, getting to be a part of that. Obviously very excited for April 1 and just hopefully, it’s not in a blizzard.”
Kershaw was not in a good mood to discuss the Opening Day start Tuesday — despite getting a single in his first at-bat of the spring. He allowed home runs to the first two batters he faced and five runs on eight hits in four innings against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday.
“It’s never good when you’re a better hitter than a pitcher. So we’ve got some things to work on, obviously,” he said.