Dodgers: Why Cody Bellinger Isn’t in the Majors Yet

The Dodgers’ 2017 season is still very young, but with an anemic offense, many are clamoring for top prospect Cody Bellinger to be called up. However, the Dodgers have more to gain by delaying his inevitable promotion.

Bellinger is surely catching the eyes of Dodger fans as he’s already blasted five home runs in just 50 at-bats for Triple-A Oklahoma City this season. So you’re probably wondering why isn’t he in Los Angeles yet? There are a couple reasons why Cody Bellinger is not in the majors yet, with the main reason being the Dodgers do not want him to accrue more than 172 days of service time this season.

Similar to the Kris Bryant situation in 2015, the Dodgers do not want to lose one of the six seasons of control they have over Bellinger, especially since they are not that desperate for offense quite yet. A Major League team can control a player for six seasons after the player accrues 172 days of service time. As long as they call him up sometime after April, they can play him as much as they want without the risk of losing a year of control. Kris Bryant was a can’t miss prospect, yet he Cubs still delayed his promotion; Los Angeles would be smart to do the same with Bellinger.

Another reason to leave Bellinger at Triple-A is to see what kind of production Los Angeles can get out of the platoon trio of Toles, Hernandez, and Van Slyke in left field. Toles hit over .300 last season but it was only a 48 game sample size. Kike Hernandez and Scott Van Slyke have both seen a recent production decline, but were once productive against left-handed pitching, so the Dodgers are hoping they can help alleviate the team’s problem of hitting off southpaws.

Bellinger hit .273 against left-handed pitching at Double-A Tulsa last season but only hit .243 off lefties in 2015 at Single-A. The Dodgers would most likely sit Bellinger against lefties, but he would still accrue service time sitting on the bench. Thus it’s best to wait.

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Bellinger only played three games at the Triple-A level last season so the Dodgers should be in no rush to promote him. Let him conquer Triple-A and then he can be called up later in the season for his big league debut. He could possibly end up being a playoff starter the way Corey Seager came up and claimed a role at the end of 2015.

The last thing LA wants to do is rush Bellinger to the majors and destroy his confidence. There have been many prospects who have been rushed to the Major Leagues only to struggle, lose all confidence, and ruin their development.

Let Bellinger prove himself at the highest minor league level and then give him a shot to stick permanently with the Dodgers.

While the temptation is there for the Dodgers to promote Cody Bellinger, there are plenty of reasons why they should wait to promote him. If there is one thing the this front office has done an excellent job at, it’s looking out for the best interest of the club in the long run without hurting the product they put out on the field at the present time.

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So sit back and relax, the Dodgers are about to go on a winning-streak and Cody Bellinger will be blasting bombs at Chavez Ravine before the summer arrives.