Dodgers: Will Cody Bellinger Bounce-Back this Year?

Experts have doubts.

The last two seasons for Dodgers outfielder Cody Bellinger haven't been great. He’s hit just .195 while posting career lows across the board with the bat. Sure, he has valid reasons for his poor performance in 2021, such as a shoulder injury and a fractured leg but 2020 wasn't his best either. Bellinger went from an MVP campaign in 2019 to a .239 batting average and.789 OPS during the Covid-shortened 60 game dash.

Many experts, including MLB analyst Eno Sarris of The Athletic, have expressed concern about whether we'll ever see another great year from Cody Bellinger.

We might never get the peak version of this player again. He’s projected for an .811 OPS, more than 50 points lower than his career number and more than 200 below his peak because he hasn’t played well for the past couple of seasons.

According to FanGraphs/Steamer, Bellinger is expected to have a little bounce-back in 2022. After batting .243/.331/.469 with 27 home runs and 79 RBI in 134 games last season, the 26-year-old has nowhere to go but up. Certainly, his recent performances are a long way from his 2019 breakthrough year, but keep in mind that he'll be one year removed from shoulder surgery and will undoubtedly be riding high following an October resurgence that saw him become the Dodgers' most potent offensive threat in the playoffs.

Related: Scott Boras Defends Cody Bellinger’s Down Year

According to Sarris, Bellinger's exit velocity picked up at the end of the year so there are some promising signs of an MVP-form resurgence, but we're dealing with such a tiny sample size that it's too soon to tell.

Cody will have to carry the burden of losing Corey Seager in the middle of the Dodgers' lineup. Unless Andrew Friedman manages to perform some post-lockout magic and acquire Freddie Freeman, we may be looking at a less effective product on the field, at least on paper.