Los Angeles Dodgers: Players that will disappoint in 2020
By Jason Reed
3. Cody Bellinger
Let’s make this abundantly clear: having a disappointing season is not the same as having a bad season. Last season was a “disappointing” season for Clayton Kershaw, by his standards, and he was still an all-star, received Cy Young votes and nearly finished under a 3.00 ERA.
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Will Cody Bellinger be an all-star again in 2020? Probably. As long as he has power at the plate and continues fielding at a gold-glove level then he will be an all-star. Will he be in the running for MVP again at the end of the year? I don’t think so.
If we are being realistic, the reason why Bellinger won the National League MVP last season was because of his hot start and because Christian Yelich got hurt. Bellinger had one of the hottest starts to a season we have ever seen and that held up the rest of the season for him to be the best in the NL.
The numbers that Yelich was producing was insane as he has arguably been better at the plate the last two seasons than Mike Trout. If Yelich got 150 games in him then he probably would have won the award, which should be evident, as he already got 10 MVP votes.
Bellinger will naturally have hot streaks that are going to hold up his overall numbers but to expect that same kind of red-hot start is unrealistic. Bellinger hit .431 in March and April with 14 home runs in 31 games.
I think we will get closer to the second-half Bellinger this season. Second-half Bellinger hit .263 with 17 home runs, 44 RBIs and a .917 OPS in 68 games. He will have some hot streaks to lift those numbers, but at the end of the year, I expect a .280 batting average, 35 home runs and around 100 RBIs.
Next. Dodgers that will exceed expectations in 2020. dark
Not a bad season in the slightest, but with guys hitting over .300 with impressive power numbers, I do not think that Cody Bellinger will even be the MVP of the Los Angeles Dodgers… I’m looking at you, Mookie Betts.