Sources: Cody Bellinger, Cubs agree on 3-year, $80 million deal

Middle fielder Cody Bellinger and the Cubs are in settlement on a three-year, $80 million contract, sources instructed ESPN, ending a chronic free company with a return engagement after his glorious 2023 season with Chicago.

Bellinger, 28, will obtain opt-outs after the primary and second years of the deal, sources stated. He’ll obtain a $30 million wage this season, $30 million in 2025 (if he would not choose out after the primary 12 months) and $20 million in 2026 (if he would not choose out after the second 12 months), in accordance with sources.

Coming off a season wherein he hit .307/.356/.525 with 26 residence runs and 97 RBIs, Bellinger reached free company in hopes of securing a mega-contract. A strong market by no means materialized, and Bellinger took an analogous path to that of Carlos Correa, with whom he shares an agent in Scott Boras.

Earlier than the 2022 season, Correa signed a three-year, $105 million contract with Minnesota when no crew supplied a longer-term deal he deemed value signing. Correa opted out after the primary season and returned to the Twins on a six-year, $200 million deal after medical points scuttled agreements with the San Francisco Giants and New York Mets. Bellinger’s deal is pending a bodily.

Bellinger’s well being in 2023 allowed him to thrive in a season that earned him Nationwide League Comeback Participant of the Yr. Ending tenth in NL MVP voting, Bellinger practically halved his strikeout charge from earlier seasons and proved adept in opposition to left-handed pitching as properly, hitting .337 in opposition to them with a .984 OPS.

Earlier than becoming a member of the Cubs, Bellinger was coming off two down seasons after he was hampered by a lingering shoulder harm from the 2020 playoffs. And regardless that he produced the bottom common exit velocity of his profession in 2023 — simply 87.9 mph — Bellinger usually lower down on his swing with two strikes, making softer contact however avoiding strikeouts. His whiff charge plummeted to a career-low 15.6% as he hit .279 with two strikes, second in all of baseball behind Luis Arraez.

Bellinger returns to a Cubs crew that has patiently waited out a free agent market that also contains NL Cy Younger winner Blake Snell, World Sequence star Jordan Montgomery and All-Star third baseman Matt Chapman. After signing left-hander Shota Imanaga to a four-year, $53 million deal, the Cubs added reliever Hector Neris on a one-year, $9 million deal. Chicago additionally traded for former Los Angeles Dodgers prospect Michael Busch, who will compete for the first-base job.

Bellinger can play there or heart, and the Cubs valued the flexibility final season, utilizing him 84 instances within the outfield and 59 instances within the infield. He established himself as a dual-position star with the Dodgers, with whom he gained NL Rookie of the Yr in 2017 and was NL Most Useful Participant in 2019 after hitting .305/.406/.629.

He fell off within the COVID-shortened 2020 season and spiraled worse in 2021, hitting .165/.240/.302 with 10 residence runs in 95 video games. Together with his well being nonetheless in query in the course of the 2022 season, he batted .210/.265/.389 with 19 residence runs in 144 video games and was non-tendered by the Dodgers that season.

Bellinger went to Chicago for $17.5 million, gained a Silver Slugger, opted out of a $25 million possibility for this season and entered a market that regarded promising for the very best hitter obtainable. Normal managers deemed the preliminary price ticket too excessive, and as Bellinger remained available on the market, the variety of groups dedicated to spending cash shrunk.

Groups have pointed to the uncertainty of local-television broadcast rights as an impetus to not spend. Apart from the Dodgers — who dedicated properly over $1 billion — no crew has exceeded the $200 million mark in free agent spending.

ESPN’s Jesse Rogers contributed to this report.