Cody Bellinger has exercised his $27.5MM participant possibility for the 2025 season, in keeping with ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel and Jeff Passan (X hyperlink). Bellinger’s three-year, $80MM cope with the Cubs final winter included opt-outs after each the 2024 and 2025 seasons, however Bellinger will cross on the primary opt-out (and $2.5MM buyout) with the intention to stay in Chicago for a minimum of another 12 months.
Bellinger additionally earned $27.5MM within the first 12 months of his contract, so he’ll have a $25MM resolution ready for him with subsequent 12 months’s opt-out. With $5MM hooked up to that opt-out, Bellinger has now assured himself $60MM of that preliminary $80MM payday, and will doubtlessly be in line for an additional long-term contract if he delivers an enormous 2025 season.
In fact, Bellinger thought that his huge 2023 season may’ve set him up for a profitable long-term contract final winter, but he ended up rejoining the Cubs for that three-year pact. Comparable option-heavy shorter-term offers have been additionally within the playing cards for different notable Scott Boras shoppers like Blake Snell, Matt Chapman, and Jordan Montgomery, main the quartet to be generally known as the “Boras 4” as their journeys by free company dragged deep into Spring Coaching.
Bellinger signed close to the top of February so he nonetheless had the good thing about most of spring camp, although accidents have been in all probability the larger cause why the previous NL MVP’s efficiency dropped off from 2023. A fractured proper rib and a fractured left center finger resulted in a few comparatively temporary journeys to the injured listing, although Bellinger hit a modest .266/.325/.426 with 18 dwelling runs over 569 plate appearances.
Whereas his 109 wRC+ was nonetheless above the league common, it additionally wasn’t the type of standout platform 12 months that may’ve made Bellinger a lock to high the remaining wage on his Cubs contract. Consequently, Bellinger was nonetheless reportedly unclear about his opt-out resolution as late as September 20, and he has now chosen maybe the marginally extra cautious transfer of simply sticking in Wrigleyville for an additional season.
There’s loads of logic in Bellinger’s resolution, past the plain enchantment of a $27.5MM payday. After being a free agent in every of the final two offseasons, a quiet winter together with his 2025 vacation spot already established absolutely had some enchantment for Bellinger. He has additionally been vocal about how a lot he has loved enjoying for the Cubs, so he’ll now keep in a well-recognized and welcome setting of the Pleasant Confines.
From the Cubs’ perspective, they now have a reasonably large wage on their books for 2025. In fact, a one-year outlay for a participant with Bellinger’s upside isn’t precisely a foul final result, and clearly it was an final result the entrance workplace has deliberate for given the three-year contract. With Pete Crow-Armstrong now establishing himself in middle area, Bellinger will in all probability be the Cubs’ major proper fielder subsequent season, with Seiya Suzuki maybe getting the majority of DH responsibility. Bellinger’s potential to additionally play middle area and first base provides to his versatility, and provides supervisor Craig Counsell some flexibility in determining his day by day lineups.
As per RosterResource, the Cubs’ projected payroll for subsequent 12 months as much as roughly $183.5MM, factoring in Bellinger staying and Drew Smyly leaving after Chicago declined their finish of the veteran pitcher’s mutual possibility. This leaves the Cubs with loads of spending house earlier than they stand up to the $241MM luxurious tax threshold, offered the brink is any form of actual barrier for possession. The Cubs didn’t pay the tax in any of the 2021-23 seasons however might have simply barely crossed the brink this season, relying on the league’s last calculations.
