Dodgers: Five Players Crucial for a Successful Postseason

You could call it a sophomore slump but that feels a bit extreme. Predictable regression is more like it.

Cody Bellinger’s total offensive numbers took a hit in 2018 but the 23-year old still leads the Dodgers in runs, games played, at-bats, and hits.

Nonetheless, Bellinger’s 39 total home runs in 2017 will not even remotely be touched in 2018 as Bellinger has hit 23 home runs with just six games remaining in the season. Outside of homers, Bellinger’s average, strikeout total, walk total, doubles and many more are all almost identical to just a season ago. So why is he on this list?

Because if this year is anything even close to last season, Bellinger is preparing to do that ultimate shutdown come the playoffs.

In the 2017 postseason, Cody Bellinger hit just .219 in 64 at-bats. Across all three series in which the Dodgers participated, Bellinger hit just one homer in each series and struck out an unreal 29 times in those 64 ABs; that’s almost fifty percent of the time.

His tendency to swing at inside curveballs became the laughing stock of both opponents and Dodger fans as Bellinger did the full 180 from Rookie of the Year to easy out.

2018 cannot work the same way. Bellinger will need to maintain his current pace at minimum for the Dodgers to be successful as he is a key part of a lineup that needs to fire on all cylinders. Success for Cody does not mean more homers, it just means consistency, cutting down on strikeouts and getting on base.