It would be cool if the Cubs brought back Cody...until the other shoe dropped
They won't even bother to do it, but if they did, they'd still do it wrong
Yesterday, we discussed how bored baseball media members keep attaching the Cubs to free agents without any evidence that the Cubs have any real interest. That it makes complete sense for the Cubs to be interested in the player makes no difference.
And then, Sunday night:
The #Cubs and #Yankees each have interest in a reunion with Cody Bellinger: www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/01/cody...
— MLB Trade Rumors (@mlbtraderumors.bsky.social) 2026-01-05T02:58:59.118Z
Should the Cubs be interested in bringing back Cody Bellinger? Of course they should be. They should never have traded him away last year. They did it because they had a "glut" of players at the positions he plays very well, including Petecrow Armstrong in center, Kyle Tucker in right, Michael Busch at first and Seiya Suzuki at DH...and then they also had Ian Happ in left.
A real team would have traded away Happ and kept Bellinger and played him in left. You can argue that playing an actual Gold Glove outfielder in left field would be a complete waste (it's almost as if the left field Gold Glove is a ludicrous award or something), but given the injuries to Tucker, Cody would have come in pretty handy last year, and Seiya could have played left for those games.
Bellinger hit more homers (29 to 23), drove in more runs (98 to 79), had a higher batting average (.272 to .243), a better slugging (.480 to .420), stole more bases (13 to 6) was caught stealing less frequently (2 to 3), and struck out a shitload less (57 to 151) than Happ. Oh, and he was worth 7 outs above average playing mostly left while Happ was a big zero (in more ways than one.)
But hey, at least Jed got a haul for Cody. He traded him for a guy who never played for the Cubs and sent the Yankees so money that they so clearly desperately needed.
Oh, dear.
