After nearly 150 days of waiting, the Chicago Cubs and Cody Bellinger have finally come to a contract agreement, according to Jeff Passan. If you were up at 1:30 a.m. like I was when you saw the news, it was an incredible experience to see that Passan Bomb come across your screen.
The deal is essentially a one-year $30 million deal, with two extra years Bellinger could opt into. The total value of the deal if Bellinger opts into the second and third year is three years at $80 million. That's a heck of a contract for the President of Baseball Ops Jed Hoyer, considering that Belli and agent Scott Boras were seeking a deal worth at least $200 million.
This was the biggest get the Cubs could have possibly gotten, outside of a long shot of Shohei Ohtani. Bellinger fits every position player need the Cubs had come into this off-season: a power bat who can also hit for average, gold glove defense at first base and in center field, and for the simple fact that he is a lefty.
Returning to Chicago was the best outcome for Bellinger this late in the cycle. It would have been ideal for him to get that $200 million for 8+ years but with spring training underway, it was unlikely that was going to happen. Now Bellinger can prove it once again and then opt out to try and get that long-term he wants next off-season. If he has another MVP-caliber season like we saw from June to the end of the year, I have no doubt teams would be more willing to give him that larger contract.
With Bellinger back, here is what the potential Opening-Day lineup would be for the Cubs:
C: Yan Gomes
1B: Cody Bellinger
2B: Nico Hoerner
3B: Christopher Morel
SS: Dansby Swanson
LF: Ian Happ
CF: Pete Crow Armstrong
RF: Seyia Suzuki
DH: Micheal Busch
This immediately puts the Cubs back on track to what was a somewhat underwhelming off-season for Chicago. There are still a few big fish out there in free agency, with Jordan Montgomery, Matt Chapman, Blake Snell, and J.D. Martinez. In a perfect world, adding Chapman to put Morel at the DH spot, Bellinger in center and Busch at first would give the Cubs four gold gloves.
While we wait for the rest of the free-agent dominoes to fall, Cubs fans can bask in the fact Cody Bellinger will be in Cubbie blue for 2024.