Dodgers bench Cody Bellinger in the midst of skid: Hes a guy were counting on

MILWAUKEE — For close to a half-hour after the Dodgers closed out a crisp, clean 4-0 win over the Brewers on Monday night, Dave Roberts sat with a former MVP in the visiting manager’s office with the door shut.

It wasn’t a verbal scuffle but rather a conversation in what has continued to be a concerning pattern for the 27-year-old center fielder who, over parts of three seasons and more than 1,000 plate appearances since winning the award in 2019, has struggled to approach league-average production at the plate. The maladies for Cody Bellinger have ranged from physical to mechanical to mental, with each sliver of a turnaround simply preceding another prolonged dip.

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So Bellinger sat Tuesday. He’ll sit Wednesday, too, when the Dodgers face left-hander Eric Lauer. It’ll be the latest in a common thread since the latter half of 2021. The Dodgers continue to look for consistency from the player who drove their offense for much of his early career.

“This is more kind of playing the short-term and the long-term view to best serve him,” Roberts said Tuesday.

“We’re not in September yet and he’s a guy we’re counting on. So I just felt where we’re at on the calendar, to give him a two, potentially three days rest because we’re not going to have this luxury. So this is a chance to give him one last chance to reset, get away from things, not worry about getting hits, cheering for his teammates and then get back in there and finish strong.”

The Dodgers have time to figure this out thanks to a near-insurmountable lead in the division and a lineup that seemingly has only one Bellinger-sized hole over the last few weeks. But the decision still strikes the same old alarm bells.

Cody Bellinger’s not in there today, and won’t be in there tomorrow, Dave Roberts said. Getting a “reset” after a meeting in the manager’s office postgame last night.

— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) August 16, 2022

The swoons look familiar. As the Dodgers pressed their advantage against Brewers starter Freddy Peralta, loading the bases in the fourth inning, Bellinger served as a respite with a late, flailing swing on a full-count fastball on the periphery of the zone. When Bellinger chopped a grounder to first base in his final at-bat Monday night, he barely made it out of the batter’s box, tossing the bat to himself and turning back to the visiting dugout as Rowdy Tellez jogged to record the out.

Bellinger finished 0-for-4, with a pair of strikeouts, lowering his season OPS to .661. Entering Tuesday, only eight hitters with as much playing time as Bellinger have performed worse at the plate.

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Bellinger’s batting line has somewhat recovered from the doldrums of last fall, when offseason shoulder surgery and a broken leg in April disrupted what had already been a downswing in his constant evolution since his award-winning 2019. No longer is Bellinger in a state of feeling out his own body. He’s insisted he’s seen the ball well for large stretches of this season.

But it hasn’t been working, by his own admission.

“The hardest part, I think, is knowing what’s in there and not being able to really just not even prove it to anyone, but prove it to myself,” Bellinger said Tuesday after the benching. “I know I can do it. But that’s where you put too much pressure on yourself. I want to just go out like I’ve done in the past. I went out and just went and played the game to win, and everything takes care of itself.”

Bellinger described his issues as being “internal” – in which his thoughts in the box centered on generating a result rather than putting together a strong at-bat. Rather than figuring out how his body works in its current state, it’s trying to recapture what is now three years old, chasing the glimmers of success.

“You’re just thinking about yourself,” Bellinger said, a mentality he’s felt he’s done a better job of snapping compared to where he was a year ago.

Feeling healthy was a start. Finding a way to settle into what has been a productive club around him has helped. But after a 2021 season in which he said he was “not having any fun,” Bellinger still found himself with these bursts and bouts, a strong weeklong stretch followed by a swoon that lasts weeks.

“It’s just getting the pitch I want to hit and knowing what I have done with it and can do with that pitch is the thing I’ve felt this year,” Bellinger said. “I’ve had it. It’s just finding that consistency factor.

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“Maybe when I’m starting to have that success, I want more and more and more and you want it more, and then it doesn’t happen as opposed to just playing the game, doing what I can to win.”

Not long ago, Bellinger was ascendant. Winning Rookie of the Year at 22 years old. Slugging 47 home runs and inserting himself into the conversation of being one of the best players in the sport at 24. And now, a steep fall.

“There aren’t many people that have had that quick ascension,” Roberts said. “To now have to deal with some adversity over the last 2 1/2 years is not easy for anyone.”

Roberts said it was premature to consider the possibility of settling Bellinger into a permanent platoon. The Dodgers have other options in center field; Chris Taylor, who’s struggled in his time off the injured list, started in Bellinger’s place Tuesday night. Trayce Thompson has played his way into the occasional start. The Dodgers’ depth is in a stronger place to supplant Bellinger than it was when he was producing at a lower clip 12 months ago. But Bellinger’s defense still grades out as a net positive, which might be enough to keep him as a regular should he recalibrate.

“(I’m) very surprised,” Roberts said of Bellinger’s prolonged morass at the plate. “I think we all are. But I kind of just look at things (as), this is where we’re at, and how are we going to get out of this?”

The Dodgers can afford to wait until they see if he can.

(Photo: Jeff Hanisch / USA Today)

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