The Chicago Cubs have started up Spring Training and are looking forward to what could be a successful 2025 campaign.
This winter, few teams improved as much as the Cubs on paper. Despite not spending a ton of money on free agents, Chicago navigated the trade market very nicely this offseason to improve the team.
The most notable was to bring in All-Star outfielder Kyle Tucker from the Houston Astros. Tucker is a true star in the game right now, and even though there is some risk with him being in the final year of his contract, it seems well worth it for the Cubs.
However, when Chicago made the deal to bring in the slugger, it became apparent that they were going to try and move on from Cody Bellinger.
After turning his career around with the Cubs in 2023, Bellinger signed a nice contract with them in the offseason last year. In his first season with Chicago two years ago, he slashed .307/.356/.525 with 26 home runs, 20 stolen bases, and 97 RBI.
It was an excellent campaign for the former MVP, and the Cubs locking him up made a lot of sense. However, he wasn’t the same player in 2024. Last year, he slashed .266/.325/.426 with 18 home runs and 78 RBI in the same number of games.
Considering that he was being paid well coming off the strong 2023 campaign, it was a disappointing year for the slugger.
Recently, Zachary D. Rymer of Bleacher Report re-graded the three-year, $80 million contract the Cubs gave to Bellinger last winter as a ‘D’
Even though Bellinger’s stats weren't bad, they didn’t live up to his hefty price tag. While the grade of a ‘D’ might be a little harsh based on the stats, the decision to trade him for essentially nothing likely factored into it.
After exercising a significant player option for 2025 worth over $25 million, the Cubs elected to trade him to the New York Yankees, while eating some of the salary.
Since the Yankees lost Soto, it made them a perfect trade partner with Chicago for Bellinger.
The Cubs, are certainly happy that they got their new star in Tucker, but it would have been curious to see if they would have pursued him had Bellinger played better in 2024.
Even though giving away their slugger for free isn’t ideal, Chicago did upgrade in the outfield significantly with Tucker. However, that doesn’t prevent them from earning a poor grade from their big signing from last year.
