Even after the Chicago Cubs fell to eight games under .500 with a loss on July 2, Cody Bellinger remained confident in the group.
He acknowledged that the Cubs entered the year with high expectations — and they still had them, even as they were just four weeks away from the July 30 trade deadline. He also felt he needed to be a bigger part of the turnaround.
“I want to do more,” Bellinger said. “That’s kind of what I strive to do. I feel like I can do way more.”
It looks like the turnaround has begun, as the Cubs had won three straight and five of their last six entering Thursday. But if they’re going to continue on this upward trajectory, it’ll have to be without their high-priced outfielder for a bit.
Bellinger exited Wednesday night’s game against the Baltimore Orioles after being hit on his left middle finger by a 97-mph sinker from Orioles reliever Cionel Pérez in the top of the seventh.
After the game, Bellinger told reporters in Baltimore that he tried to grip a baseball but “couldn’t trust myself, if I needed to make a throw, to make a throw,” which is why he left the game. The finger was swollen postgame, though Bellinger said the range of motion was “pretty good.” However, he had learned “you just gotta wait for the CT scan until you can make any opinions on it.”
The results from the imaging were obviously not what he and the team had hoped, forcing the Cubs to place Bellinger on the 10-day injured list with a left middle finger fracture Thursday. Alexander Canario was recalled from Triple-A Iowa to take his spot on the active roster.
On the positive side, the All-Star break is next week, so that’s four days Bellinger will be on the IL (he’s not eligible to come off until July 21) that aren’t also missed game days. So, four fewer games the Cubs will be playing without him.
However, Cubs manager Craig Counsell told reporters Thursday that “he’s basically going to be shut down through the All-Star break,” and then he’ll start “range-of-motion rehab” when they come back. Counsell noted Bellinger’s return is “going to be some time” after the break, which means the Cubs could go most of the rest of the month without him.
On the season, Bellinger has slashed .269/.331/.410/109 wRC+ and has continued to be a versatile defender in the outfield and at first base. Though he hasn’t quite performed to the level the Cubs needed him to after re-signing him on a three-year, $80 million contract this offseason, he’s still a big part of the team on both sides of the ball.
There’s also the fact that, if the Cubs can’t complete the turnaround and end up dealing some players away at the end of the month, Bellinger could’ve been a part of that process, though the fact he has opt-outs after this season and next would’ve complicated things regardless. Now, however, him potentially missing the rest of the month could end up complicating things even further if that’s the directions the Cubs decide to take.
