Cody Bellinger To The Blue Jays? Would This Actually Work? (Latest Free Agent Rumors)

Cody Bellinger To The Blue Jays? Would This Actually Work? (Latest Free Agent Rumors)

[Music] Hello everybody and welcome back to Blue Jays today coming to you from the sports interaction studio where we always got something to say about the Toronto Blue Jays. I’m your host Adam Pel and I’m your host Nicholas Play and in this one we’re going to be talking about the possibility of Cody Bellinger coming over to the Toronto Blue Jays. Some people have been talking about there’s been some rumors that are circulating that the Blue Jays could even be interested in Cody Bellinger. And we’re just going to break down effectively everything. The contract, where he’d fit into this team, what that would mean for others like Bo Bashette, like the pitching, and decide whether or not getting Cody Bellinger actually makes sense for the Toronto Blue Jays. If you guys are enjoying the offseason coverage, please make sure to hit that like, smash that subscribe button, and if you have the option to, hit the like button as well. really help smaller channels like us grow, which we are certainly trying to do. Let’s immediately flash over to that report. This came out a couple days ago. Blue Jays, Dodgers, shocker, interested in Cody Binger. And this is coming from Jeff Pass, by the way, who is the GOAT baseball insider. Yeah. And like we mentioned on Friday, if you were there for our live stream, I I brought up this point, and I’m going to live and die by this. There’s a difference between interested and, you know, targeting or engaging with, right? Engaging with a player means that you’re talking to their agents and you’re trying to get something, you know, across the table, initial offer across the table. Interested. I mean, I’m I’m interested in just about any baseball player ever. You know what I mean? Like, I could be interested in you to be in my minor league system if I really wanted to. So, interested just means you like a player and you would like to see him on your team. So, Blue Jays, as we know, for the last couple years, have been interested. But, let’s talk about it. Is this finally going to be the year where they put a an offer across table that is tantalizing and he comes over to Blue Jays and would that make sense and what would that look like? Well, to answer that question, let’s first look at what Cody Bellinger’s done recently. Last year, I’m not going to lie, folks. It’s a pretty damn good year. You know, we talk about Ernie Clement’s five war season. That was awesome for him. Cody Ballinger five war season, 5.1 according to baseball reference, a 272 batting average. That’s pretty darn nice. 98 RBI’s, 89 runs scored. That’s really good. 334 on base percentage. So, not super big in the walk category, just kind of around league average. And then he’s got the slug. He’s got the OPS plus and the OPS at 813 with 29 home runs. Cody Bellinger has had up and down career. He’s been an MVP at one point in his young part of his career and he’s also been almost he’s literally been cut from the LA Dodgers and non-tendered. So, with all that being said, like he’s been kind of steadily getting back on track. What do you like about Cody Bellinger right here? And you think he’s a good player? Let me start off with with what I don’t like. And what I don’t like is the lack of consistency that his career has had. There has been ups and downs. And when we later get into the contract that he’s projected to be making, I look at that 2024 year with with him on the Chicago Cubs and should he get the contract that he’s projected to get, I don’t know if that’d be worth that, right? I wouldn’t want to see a year like that. I would want to see the 2023 year or the 2025 year. And I can’t necessarily guarantee you that you’re not going to have a couple of those 2024 sprinkled in there or god forbid the 2021 or 2022 or that stuff cuz that was bader stuff right there. The good news is that overall in the last three years, if we just average them all out, he has definitely been a solid baseball player. And at the very least, we haven’t seen him been as horrendously bad as he was in 2021 and 2022 when he was literally getting cut by the LA Dodgers. So, I guess you could make the argument that the consistency is starting to come back there. But for the money that he is projected to earn, you got to be playing at a high caliber cuz he’s looking at getting maybe $30 million a year. Yeah, that’s what it looks like. $30.4 million according to spot rack. Now, obviously, as we know, markets can depict what the contract will look like. Usually, it’s a lot higher than this. This is initially the value, but then if you get into a bidding war, that’ll probably go up. Like, I could see him easily landing around where Vladimir Guerrero Jr. makes about 35 to $36 million per year average annual value, which is kind of crazy, too. I don’t want to derail this whole thing, but like where baseball contracts are going like the fact that if he was to get to that point, even this point right here, you know, let’s say let’s say $31 million just to make it even. Okay, $31 million for a guy who Okay, yeah, great season, but you know, still like, you know, 813 ops. I know the war is really really good, but again, it’s like 813 OPS, $31 million. It’s a lot of money. It’s a lot of money. It is, right? And you bring up the war like there is an element of that outfield in him, right? He does have a pretty good damn outfield defense, right? And he could play all over the place. He could play in left, he could play in center, he could play in right, which is one of the points why it would kind of make sense for the Blue Jays cuz, you know, you’re not too sure about where Dalton Vo is going to go after 2026. You know, you got Anthony Son Dare out there in right field and then, you know, you slot Cody in left, but if you want him to play wherever you want, you can put him wherever you want, right? So, that’s one of the benefits there. But obviously, that all adds up to a big contract. So, you could be looking at $200 million, maybe, maybe even more than that if he goes for a seven-year, which brings up my next point. You know, yeah, he’s been so inconsistent, but now you’re going to have Cody B, who’s 30 years old right now into his age 36, 37 season, if it gets that long, and is he going to be consistent then or is he going to start fall off the rails? Sure. And and and that certainly is uh a question for the Toronto Blizzard. they would need to come to terms with the fact that yeah, come 35, 36, 37 years old, you might not have him at the caliber that he’s performing at right now. But again, that’s what I don’t like. I didn’t actually get to say what I do like. And what I do really like about Cody Bellinger is the fact that I think he does fit into this team scheme quite a bit. He is really good when it comes to limiting the strikeouts, or at least he was last year. He doesn’t have a lot of whiff in his thing. Uh, and on top of all of that, like you brought up, like you alluded to, that defense. I mean, we know that they love the outfield defense. Uh, you’re probably going to be forced into a situation where Santandere is going to be in that outfield decent amount of the time cuz you’re going to want George Springer playing DH. Well, how about we offset the lackluster defense with another really good defender, pairing him up with Daltton Bar. And then, of course, like you said, Daltton Vo, we don’t know how long he’s going to be on this team. George Springer’s got one more year left. I know he’s not, you know, playing outfield every single day anymore, but still that’s just another guy that kind of slots into that rotation every now and again. So, bringing somebody in, uh, you know, the veteran outfielder who has good defense, this has definitely been par for the course of this Blue Jays management, something I could 100% see them doing. And for those reasons, just him fitting into this team, it does feel like a seamless transition to me where it’s like, okay, all of your skills translate to what we like. Yeah. And I look at too, you know, what is the next pillar of this of this roster moving forward and George Springer has been a major pillar of this roster like you mentioned, right? And like this guy’s been here for a while. He’s going to be leaving in in after 2026. Well, you need another pillar. It’s the same argument that we’ve making about the Blue Jays going and getting some starting pitching this off season. Kevin Gosman’s leaving after 226, who’s been a massive pillar of this organization. You might want to consider replacing a pillar. Now, I know we’ve talked about Kyle Tucker. That’d be a pillar right there, but Cody B could also be that pillar. Now, one more thing I want to mention about the offensive side of things for Cody B that I really, really like is we could finally have that lefty, that elite lefty up at the top of the line. Now, no disrespect to what Nathan Lucas did for the Blue Jays this year. He’s a hell of a ball player. I love him. But Cody B up there in the two spot would look obviously a lot better when he’s hitting almost 30 home runs with a great defense and, you know, the ability to slug out outlandish numbers, right? So, having him there would finally be that lefty that could split up the righties in an elite way. Yeah, I I agree, man. It would certainly make the lineup better and defensively like he’s definitely not detracting in any fast. In fact, he is adding right. So, yeah, as a player very good, money really does become the only concern and it’s because it will start to limit what else they can do. I’m not going to sugarcoat it, folks. There’s no way that they get Cody Bellinger and Bobette on this team. I just do not see reality where that happens because ultimately the average annual value of those two guys if Cody Ballinger is going to be $30 million let’s say that Bobette is going to be what high 20s high that’s $60 million for two guys right there that is a lot. So I know that their overall contracts let’s say it’s 200 million for Bellinger and 200 million for Bob Bashette. Okay, well that’s kind of like one Kyle Tucker, but it doesn’t really work out that way because Kyle Tucker would be getting paid high $30 million. These guys be getting paid a lot more than that. I think it’d be very unrealistic to see them go out and get Cody Bellinger and Boba. It’s not impossible. Bob Nightingale said that there is still a possibility that this could happen, but we are talking, you know, we’re getting into fairy tale land. So, I do think that more times than not, if they were to get Cody B, that would mean that Boba is not on this base. Like, let’s zoom out right now. Like, they don’t need to, you know, two and they need an additional offensive bat. If you’re thinking about the roster from last year, if you get back Bobette and adding Cody B, like that’s that’s starting to get ludicrous. What they really need is the pitching. And everybody’s been saying our comment section whenever we talk about a bat. What are we talking about here? What are you pitching? I’m with you. Like, the pitching absolutely is a priority. And getting one bat back, whether it be Bob Bashette, Cody B, Kyle Tucker, getting one of those guys back is absolutely crucial. Now, let’s talk about that. If it did come down to Cody B and Bob Bashette, who would you rather have? We talked about Kyle Tucker and Bobett, and we’ve inevitably lean Kyle Tucker. What about Cody B or Bobette? It’s close for me. Uh I do think that the arguments of defense from Cody Bellinger is is like a a big a big thing to put into play here. Uh, you know, Bob Bashett, it’s it’s it’s weird because they’re two different hitters, right? I think that Bobette is he’s definitely a better average guy and he’s again, he’s going to be one of those dudes where at some point in his career I don’t think he’s got there yet, but at some point in his career, he’s going to get over 200 hits if he’s fully healthy. Feels like he’s the type of guy that could do that. I don’t think Cody Belinger is ever going to be that guy unless he did it in MV MVP year and I’m just talking out of my ass. Uh he did he did not did not. So I don’t think he’s ever going to be that guy. But I certainly could see Cody Bellinger, you know, one of as he’s getting older. Like could we see 35 36 home runs? Could we see him even flirt with 40? Maybe. I I’m probably getting ahead of myself, but it it’s not impossible, right? He’s certainly got a lot more of that slug there than Bobette does and he also has the defense. But then you got the camaraderie of both. There’s a lot of arguments to be made here. I think ultimately and it’s it’s fractions of difference here. I would still probably prefer Bob Bashette marginally. I would not be upset at all with Cody Ballinger coming in here though. Yeah, I I like Bo Bashette. You guys know this. He’s also three years younger, you know, and they’re looking at very similar contract lengths. You know, that like six, seven, eight, like, you know, somewhere around that ballpark. Obviously, the market is going to determine what it is, but you know, if I can get three years younger of prime than Cody B, who’s already kind of halfway through his prime right now. I would rather take the guy who could lead the hits every single year. That’s the thing too with Bob Bashette, like I don’t see, and maybe this is me just hopeful and wishful thinking. I don’t see Bobette at age 33 losing the ability necessarily to like make, you know, great contact and and and find a barrel to the ball. Like obviously the elasticity of himself will lose as he ages on. But like he’s already so damn talented that even if he did regress a bit, he’s still going to be one of the best hitters in baseball. And that’s all I’m really looking for. And I’ve got three more years of insurance in case that decline does hit. Right. And like you said, camaraderie is everything. I think I’ I’ that would push me over top. I’d want Bashan on the team over Cody Binger. Yeah. And I I think I’m with you as well. Uh again, I do want to make it clear. Should they get Cody Bellinger, I’m not going to be upset at this at all. I do still think though, you know, to our kind of circling back to that whole pitching side of things. If you get one of these guys in Bellinger and or Bob Bushette, there’s no excuse for me for you to not go and still get one of those upper echelon pitchers, whether it be Ranger Suarez or Michael King or Dylan Ces or what have you. If you go and get Kyle Tucker, okay, maybe we can get into tier two or tier three of the pitcher. I get it, right? You just got literally the guy on free agency. So, I’m going to give you a little bit of grace here. But if you go out and if you resign Bo, or if you get Cody Bellinger, which is it’s reported they’re interested in him right now, I still want to see you go and get somebody like a Ranger Suarez. And if you did that, I would be upset about losing Bo, but Ranger Suarez and Cody Bellinger coming in. Wouldn’t be the worst off season in the world. That would pretty be pretty damn good. But guys, let us know your thoughts in the comments down below. Hit that like button. Smash that subscribe button. Also, hit that like button if you are able to. It is only $4 a month to become a YouTube member. Shout out thank you to all of our current YouTube members. You guys are absolutely awesome. Thank you so much for watching everybody and as always, go Jays go.

Last Week Jeff Passan said the Blue Jays and Dodgers are interested in Cody Bellinger. With that being said, would it actually make sense for the Blue Jays to target a player like Cody Bellinger? We break him down and see how he would fit in to this Blue Jays team, and what would that mean for Bo Bichette?

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