Los Angeles Dodgers: Bold predictions for Cody Bellinger in 2020
By Jason Reed
2. Cody Bellinger’s batting average dips, his OPS does not
I say this with an extreme grain of salt but Cody Bellinger has not been great in Spring Training thus far. Again, it is a minuscule sample size and it is always laughable when we overreact on Spring Training, either positive or negative, and this is in ways me doing that.
However, those struggles do fuel the Bellinger doubters who think that his batting average is going to reflect the .263 mark that he posted in the second half. I think his batting average will be closer to .263 than .336, but that won’t be indicative of a much worse season.
Even with Bellinger’s second-half drop-off last season he still was not striking out at a much more alarming rate. His strikeout percentage went from 14.85 percent in the first half to 18.3 percent in the second half. Sure, it was a jump, but 18 percent is nothing to be concerned about.
What is more important is that his walk rate stayed the same, indicating that he was still getting on base. Bellinger walked in 14.3 percent of his plate appearances in the first half and 14.4 percent of his plate appearances in the second half.
Bellinger is batting in the MLB’s deepest lineup that also includes Mookie Betts, Max Muncy, Justin Turner and Corey Seager, just in the top-five.
The other players, including Betts at lead-off, are going to benefit from pitchers not wanting to pitch to Bellinger. As a result, Bellinger is going to be the one that is pitched around and any time there is a runner in scoring position with two outs Bellinger is probably going to get walked, which will be a lot.
Bellinger is not going to get the luxury of getting pitched to and his batting average will probably fall around .280 as a result. However, when he does get hits, they are going to be extra-base hits and with a high on-base percentage, his OPS will still hover around 1.000.
Those doubting Bellinger will use that dip in batting average as their vindication when in reality, it will be a red herring for what is still a great year form Bellinger.