The Cubs announced that outfielder Cody Bellinger has a fracture in his left middle finger and has been placed on the 10-day injured list. Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune was among those to relay the news on X. Fellow outfielder Alexander Canario has been recalled to take his spot on the active roster.
In last night’s game, Bellinger was hit on the hand by a pitch from left-hander Cionel Pérez. He departed the contest as he felt he couldn’t throw a ball, per Montemurro on X. Now it seems a fracture has been found and he’ll need to miss some time.
Teams are generally more willing to put a player on the IL around the All-Star break, as it allows for an extended breather while perhaps only missing a handful of games. But if Bellinger has a broken bone, he was probably going to need an IL stint regardless, though the club hasn’t yet indicated how much time they expect him to miss.
Either way, it’s a rough development for the club. Bellinger isn’t quite hitting as much as he did last year but his .269/.331/.410 batting line is still 9% better than league average, according to wRC+. He’s also stolen five bases while playing competent center field defense.
The Cubs are in a tight spot, as they are currently 44-49. That only leaves them 3.5 games back in the crowded National League Wild Card race but with several teams ahead of them. They are currently only ahead of the Rockies, Marlins and Nationals and would have to leapfrog six other clubs to get into postseason position. With the trade deadline now less than three weeks away, they will soon have to make some decisions about how aggressively to buy or sell or walk a fine line between the two.
Losing a player of Bellinger’s quality will make it a bit more challenging to climb in the standings in the next few weeks. Bellinger himself has also been speculated as a potential trade candidate, though the opt-outs in his contract make that a complicated endeavor, something that MLBTR’s Anthony Franco recently explored in a piece for Front Office Subscribers. If there was any chance of the Cubs lining up something there, it’s possible that this injury will make it less likely.
With Mike Tauchman also on the IL, the Cubs are now down two outfielders. They will have to proceed with a mix of Pete Crow-Armstrong, Seiya Suzuki and Ian Happ with Canario now in there as well. Canario has a stout batting line of .282/.333/.538 in his big league career. That’s come in a small sample of 42 plate appearances but he also has a strong line of .238/.330/.502 in Triple-A this year.
For Bellinger, it’s possible this impacts him personally. At the end of the year, he will have to trigger his opt-out or stick with the Cubs. He can take a $2.5MM buyout or stick around and collect a $27.5MM salary in 2025, with another $25MM player option and $5MM buyout for the following year. Whether he wants another crack at free agency or not will naturally depend on the kind of platform he produces here in 2024, so he will obviously be hoping to come back in good form in short order.
Who did he insult?
Every other MVP?
So much for that trade…
Yeah, and the cubs are stuck with him the rest of the season. As Mark or Steve said in one of the chats, bellinger’s opt-outs will make it difficult to trade him. Way to go, Boras!
avenger- He’s not going to be difficult to trade or get rid of. By the deadline sure. After the season you go to him and say look if you opt in we’re going to trade you. Quite a few teams will be interested. You say if you want to decide where you play opt out. If not we’ll take the best trade we can get. As far as I know Hoyer wasn’t stupid enough to give him all the control AND a NMC. But I haven’t double checked that. But Hoyer isn’t a good GM so there’s that.
Mike-
Can you see anyway the Cubs would be interested in a Bellinger for Arenado trade? There would obviously be some money or other players going to Chicago, or some bad money coming back to St. Louis.
Where were those teams in the offseason? The Cubs were the only buyers on fools gold.
The Cubs shouldn’t be interested in ANY big FA contract or any bad contract. If Hoyer is smart he’ll just let everything play out and lose the money that’s coming off the books AND NOT do anything really stupid like taking on ANOTHER bad contract. Make smart, Low FA signings that won’t break the bank and for once leave himself some room to operate. The stupidest thing he could possibly do is go for it again with the same people that failed last year. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. The 2 biggest needs are a C who can hit and maybe a closer if nobody leaps up and takes it the rest of this year. That shouldn’t cost a fortune.
The window for trading Arenado is closed. There’s three years left on the contract with St. Louis on the hook for $64 million. The Rockies will pay $10 million. It’s not that bad. The shame is missing out on all the talent they could have received this time last year.
What a difference a year makes. Eighteen months ago everyone was thrilled Arenado didn’t opt out.
You’re right. I’m just fishing.
With his opt out, the Cubs would not have got much, if anything.
Rickett’s should be able to absorb the contract even with an opt-in, but we know that won’t happen.
Last time I checked the O’s have 2 pretty good CF’s and a few guys who can play first base so I don’t exactly get the need.
They absolutely don’t need him IMO. Take it for what it’s worth.
It is always hard to find lefty bats. Time to make that call to Chris Getz and the White Sox for Andrew Benintendi.
Barry, you are the funniest guy.
yeah, tons of teams are out there fishing for a guy with a .549 OPS who’s making $15-20 mil a year and has several years left on his insane contract.
There really needs to be a minimum IQ to post here.
Cody is injury prone.
Cubs should have seen it coming.
He has that weird multiple opt-out contract. If he’s injured for a long-ish period, he might stay for the guaranteed $50M. He’s been OK but not special this year.
Cubs gave too much AAV for him annually in that Boras deal. Plus, that double opt-out only benefits Bellinger. He will stay only if he has a mediocre or injured season and will opt-out if his performance warrants it and it likely can get a better deal elsewhere. The multiple year opt-out contract also diminished his value in a trade by the Cubs to another team. Mistake by the Cubs. Too bad he was injured as he likely would have been traded and the Cubs could have escaped this mistake.
How dare the player want to get a better deal for himself! Let’s all stand cheer for the billionaire owners!
Think you miss the point. But hooray for you. You stand for the little guy….derp de derp
Ok, so why don’t you enlighten me, professor? And yeah I’ll side with the players over the billionaire elites every single time. I’m not sure why anyone wouldn’t unless they’re, as you so eloquently stated; a derp.
That’s the risk a team takes to sign a player with his potential short-term.
BleacherCreature has the correct read on this. The Cubs had question marks in center and 1st going into the season. They also needed another lefty bat. Hoyer didn’t want to sign a long-term deal, so he was willing to overpay for the right guy. Bellinger was the right guy. It’s really that simple.
I highly doubt Bellinger opts out at the end of the year and I’m certain Hoyer will be happy to once again slightly overpay Bellinger. There are a lot of bad contracts out there. This isn’t one of them.
The Cubs need to make him opt out By telling him they’ll trade him if he opts in. 2 Years at 55 million with an opt out is tradable. Giants, Seattle and Houston off the top of my head would be interested. Cubs wouldn’t get much but the Tax relief.
Mancini-7 Million
Hendricks- 16
Barnhart -3
Bote-4 after his buyout
Smyly- 11
That’s 41 right now
Bellingers -27.5 would make it around 70 million with 2 major needs in the off season. A C who can hit and a Closer. jump out. If not a Closer at least another solid late inning arm who’s battle tested.
Pen next year has a lot of possibilities,
Merryweather
Leiter Jr. ? Maybe they trade him maybe not
Hodge
Little
Bigge
Brown
Assad
Wicks
Arias
Scalzo Jr.
Alzolay-?
One more tested arm can help immensely and wouldn’t cost an arm and a leg..I wouldn’t trade for one of the C’s this year unless they can extend him when they get him. Otherwise they can chase them for free this off season. Time to give the farm a chance and flush the crap off the Major League roster.
Typical Jed move. Bring up Canario and never play him. He is hitting .238 in Iowa so he is not busting the door down.
Failed opertunity as promoting Caissie here gives insight and MLB PA to a top 100 talent.
Baby steps get old fast. Time for a front office overhaul.
Caissie is dinged up. He hasn’t played in a while now. And he’s not on the 40 man so Jed would have to DFA one of his pets. Good luck with that.
July 4th. They don’t have him on the DL so not a major issue.
This is why Jed should be on the hot seat right now. This team is not good enough to go deep. Even with this current string all I am thinking is when will the 30 days of no O start up again?
Cody got injured at the worst time as he has trade value and will prevent educated moves.
Looking at Jed’s track record. He has made a few good deals but every one has been countered by a bad deal.
I think that the right call is to let Jed finish the year and make a change. Sitting at the bottom of the NL with 200M payroll is not acceptable and if Tom is cool with it then he is a loser.
Jed doesn’t determine lineups, but go ahead and beat that drum.
Jed determines who Counsell has to play. Drum banged and I’ll keep beating it until he starts making smart decisions for a change.
He is in charge of supply. No matter what the line up is it can not add talent by hitting this guy in front of that guy.
He over spent on Cody. Over spent on Neris. Over spent on Hendricks.
It is time for change. The baby steps on his prospects is getting old. Shaw should be at AAA weeks ago seeing pitching that has been in the show.
Giving Morel 3B with out any track record of minor league success? That fumble is on Jed.
This year is done. Time to trade and promote and open up payroll while getting a better idea what the team needs are.
A few wins doesn’t change a futile effort. Should have never come to this.
Injuries are a excuse. Every team has them. The problem lies in a lack of core talent.
That’s what I said. Now that I look at it I worded it badly. What Unclemike meant to say was Hoyer gives Counsell the guys on his bench. And for the most part they are a reflection of him. They’re bad.
Mm. IDK tbh. It is a fair point that you are making. But Craig’s proving that he can win when he has talent. He had arguably the best setup and closure in baseball. But at the end of the day he won with that talent so that makes him a proven commodity. So at the end of the day if the Cubs have talent that is equal to their competitors versus overpaying and acting like they have a huge payroll they might do well
He’s the pres, so he kind of does…maybe not batting order but he put this terrible offense together.
Hello, Kevin Kiermaier…
I like him. His brother is actually the head groundskeeper for the Cubs. And I bet he could actually help improve PCA as a center fielder. And you’ll be a nice candidate going forward as a outfield coach after retires for the Cubs. I am not against it I don’t think this team’s going anywhere and you really have to start thinking about the future right now
Cubs have plenty of OFs.
As the article states, “With Mike Tauchman also on the IL, the Cubs are now down two outfielders.” (Suzuki & Happ) Canario and Crow-Armstrong are young and inexperienced at the MLB level, so grabbing someone like Kiermaier, on the cheap, isn’t going to upset the apple cart.
belly having a bad follow up to bounceback last year
couple that with snell and montgomery’s disasterous seasons. cant be anything to do with boras’ failure as agent last offseason
alonso’s a FA after this season. these guys are doomed
lucky to get deals with diablo de los rojas mexico city next yr
Great sign Alonso. Another horrible FA contract to take the place of all the horrible FA contracts that come off the books this year. Smmmmmaaaarrrrttt.
Bellinger is not having a bad year.
Dam , the cubs have fallen in their rebuilding. Somebody from the white Sox or pirates work there??
Perhaps the post just above this one can provide a temporary solution.
The Cubs should never be sellers but this will Hoyer an excuse.
Cubs should sell hoyer
I wonder if they could? Nah nobody would want him based on the last 2 years.
No one would take that deal
All the talk Jed and Theo did Houston did what they talked about.
Theo sold the future and Jed is afraid to start it.
Jed is trying to win the Southern League title again more than he’s trying to win the World Series. Nobody is getting promoted from Tennessee that doesn’t pitch. Meanwhile he signs stewbum after stewbum.
These players are sissy’s, back in my day guys used to get hit in the hands all the time and never broke bones, and if they did they just taped their fingers together and went ahead and played a double header. If I was the coach, I would chuck wrenches at batters in practice until they learned how to get out of the way of inside pitches because it’s well known if you dodge a wrench you can dodge a ball.
This is unfortunate but I don’t think it’s the end of the World for the Cubs if it’s handled properly. PCA gets the start in center with Canario DH but I’m sure CC will have Mastrobuoni play third with Morel at DH because he loves himself some sample sizes.
I really hope Canario actually starts some games. Craig Counsell doesn’t seem to like playing younger guys. From Canario to Vasquez. They sat on the bench most of their time the first time they were called up. This is Canario’s 2nd call up this year.
PCA, Mervis and Amaya all seem to have played quite a bit.
Mervis was up for like 2 weeks and started maybe 5 games. Pca is the exception but he doesn’t play against lefties. Amaya is now the main catcher and he’s not been very good.
Got to love that line up. 5-9 are hitting .205 or lower.
What a joke
Perez should be suspended immediately and remain so until such time that the player he injured with a pitch is able to return at his traditional level of play. It’s just part of the game BS just doesn’t cut it any more. Long past the time for MLB to address the inequity of batter injury resulting from HBP.
Just stick with your terrible puns
What about batted comebackers that hit a pitcher resulting in them being out for the season? The hitter should get suspended as well?
Hitters today already wear enough body armor.
That sucks for him considering he’d have been moved to a contender, but his bank account will be just fine
So much for pointing fingers.
He’s on the 10-day list… He can still be traded. He’ll be fine and honestly, he could use the break. It was obvious something was bothering him. He’s going to tear things up when he gets back.
Mmm. He could use the break. Yep
Craig said Aug would be a fast track for a finger fracture.
Day by day right now. I don’t like the pitching match ups against the Cards unless Assad returns for the DH on Sat.
He will be out at least 3-4 weeks depending on his pain tolerance.
Man, the hits just keep on coming. The Cubbies can’t catch a break on the injury front.
They are catching plenty of breaks and strains and other injuries that you need a PHD to understand
Cubs are stuck paying him next year too