When Cody Bellinger made his 2021 Spring Training debut on Tuesday he did so with a drastically new batting stance. Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts previously indicated Bellinger was using a more open approach, but even that failed to convey its true extent.
Bellinger went 0-for-3 with a strikeout in his first Cactus League game and didn’t get back into the lineup until Thursday. Bellinger flied out in each of his first two at-bats, then hit an RBI single and capped off his second game with a go-ahead home run in the seventh inning.
“I thought he was really good,” Roberts said after the 7-7 tie. “He consistently is getting off his ‘A’ swing, I think he’s seeing the baseball really well and certainly the results were good. More importantly, he’s feeling good and seeing the baseball.”
Beyond collecting his first hit and homer of the spring, Bellinger’s at-bats against the Arizona Diamondbacks were noteworthy in that he didn’t appear to have as open of a batting stance. Instead it more closely resembled the stance from his 2017 Rookie of the Year season.
“I’m not sure what he and the hitting guys kind of came up with, but certainly a few degrees more closed, looked comfortable and took some good swings,” Roberts noted.
When explaining the decision to change his batting stance this season, Bellinger explained it was merely from a desire to find the positioning he is most comfort and confident in. He and Roberts also allowed for the possibility of changes to be ongoing.
Bellinger famously changed his batting stance last year, which spawned a slew of questions and resulted in criticism throughout the year as he struggled to meet expectations from an MVP campaign.
“Everything I’ve done is relatively close. It’s a combination of learning throughout all my years of playing,” Bellinger said of his changes the past two years.
Bellinger’s shoulder non-issue
More important than the stance Bellinger utilizes in the batter’s box is his surgically repaired right shoulder does not appear to be hindering him. Bellinger has swung with full extension on multiple occasions and in Thursday’s game reached up over his head to make a running catch in center field.
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