There were some questions about what the Chicago Cubs would do during this past offseason.
After shocking the baseball world by handing Craig Counsell the most lucrative managerial contract in the sport's history, that seemed to indicate this organization was serious about building a contending team.
They were linked as potential suitors for high-profile free agents Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, but it was revealed they were never really in the running and they pivoted to signing Shota Imanaga.
A player who was extremely important for the Cubs last year hit the open market, and at first, it looked like they were not going to bring Cody Bellinger back because of how much money he and his agent were looking for initially.
Eventually, Chicago was able to re-sign him, handing the star a three-year, $80 million deal that has opt outs after each season.
So, the question, once again, will be if Bellinger is going to return to the Cubs, or if he's going to test the open market.
Michael Cerami of Bleacher Nation believes the reigning NL Comeback Player of the Year is going to opt out of his contract with Chicago and see if he can land the megadeal he was searching for this winter.
"To me, if he continues to perform at the same level, that's an EASY opt-out given the way things have gone so far. At a minimum, Bellinger should be able to test the market for that bigger deal again ... Does anyone actually believe that a 29-year-old center fielder (with all that going for him) would not be able to get a better deal than what he'd be opting out of? Come on. Of course he could ... The bottom line for me is this: If the season ended today and Cody Bellinger had to make his decision based only on his up-to-date numbers, I think he opts out," he writes.
There's a lot of interesting stuff in what Cerami is saying.
First, if Bellinger does come back on his existing deal with the Cubs, he would get $27.5 million for the 2025 season. That's a good amount of money, but not top of the market for someone with an MVP pedigree and the past performances he's had.
There was concern by other teams that his 2023 output was a one-off and the brutal years he had with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2021 and 2022, where he put up OPS+ figures of 44 and 81 respectively, was his new norm.
So far, the slugger has slashed .268/.326/.439 with nine homers and 33 RBI, good for a 114 OPS+.
That's not the same performance Bellinger had last season, but it's still above average, and when combined with his age and solid defense in the outfield and at first base, that could interest multiple teams.
There's also still plenty of games left for him to improve upon those numbers, meaning his overall profile could look that much better by the time he needs to make a decision.
All in all, everything is pointing to Bellinger hitting the open market again, meaning Chicago will have to make another decision about if they want to make a long-term commitment to the star with so many young outfield prospects waiting in their pipeline.
