Cody Bellinger was in the Los Angeles Dodgers lineup for the first time on Tuesday, having successfully checked off all the boxes during rehab from offseason shoulder surgery. Bellinger was in his familiar center field but at the plate sported a new batting stance.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts had previously shed some insight on the change, noting Bellinger had incorporated more of an open stance. Visually it’s in stark contrast to Bellinger’s positioning from a year ago and throughout his young career thus far.
“Just playing with what I feel is good for me. I feel confident with it,” Bellinger explained of the change. “I just had a lot of downtime. I’ve done it in the past and had a lot of success with it. It feels really good.”
Bellinger tinkering with his stance last swing was met by endless criticism, both because it was an odd development for a player coming off an MVP season and pitchers managed to exploit it with a steady dose of fastballs inside.
“It was more about how I felt. Nothing to where the pitchers attacked,” Bellinger said. “It’s all about comfort and I believe in it.”
Like last year, the former Rookie of the Year winner maintained the change in actuality is not significant. “Everything I’ve done is relatively close (to mimicking batting stance from 2019),” he said. “It’s a combination of learning throughout all my years of playing.”
Bellinger went 0-for-3 with a strikeout but was hardly deterred by the results. “I felt pretty good. As the game went on I felt better,” he said. “Just a matter of playing the game when it’s defense, wait an inning, hit. Just to get in the rhythm of things.
“The timing, we’ll see. I don’t think it will take long. I felt pretty good, so just playing in games.”
Roberts putting trust in Bellinger
Although last season Roberts acknowledged Bellinger making wholesale changes when coming off an MVP season was a bit peculiar, he remains supportive of the ongoing tinkering.
“He and the hitting guys talk all the time about mechanics, approach and how each guy is feeling individually,” Roberts said. “I think ideally you’d want guys to have one set stance and always feel comfortable, but that’s just not the case.
“We still have plenty of time to figure out where he wants to be when the season starts. It could change. That’s kind of how Cody’s feeling.”
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