Cody Bellinger Was Built to Be This Way

The first time I met Dodgers slugger Cody Bellinger, we didn’t have a lot of time, so I just shook his hand and said that I’d seen him enough to think “you swing really hard, every time, don’t you?” He smiled. “Always been this way.” And that part remained true when we reconnected. But he also opened my eyes to the parts of his game that were molded along the way.

The first coach that Bellinger had was his father. Clay Bellinger got some time with the Yankees earlier this century and coached his son early on. But once the son signed with the Dodgers, the father’s advice receded to “little tips and pointers.” His dad’s a firefighter now, in Gilbert, Arizona, and so he’s a little busy with his day job.

And the son had professional coaches. When he first arrived in pro ball, though, the focus was on staying afloat. “When I first signed in [2013] and Rookie ball in ’14, I wanted to learn how to hit first,” Bellinger said before a game against the Giants. “I was so young — I was 17, 18 — I didn’t worry about power at all.” You can see that there was something different about Bellinger back then.

Cody Bellinger, in Three Acts
Time Period PA ISO BB% K% GB% FB% HR/FB
2013-2014 428 0.156 10.7% 20.1% 48% 35% 4%
2015-2017 1098 0.258 11.0% 24.2% 32% 48% 18%
MLB 2017 105 0.358 9.5% 28.6% 27% 51% 28%

Those professional coaches largely left him alone that first year, but going into High-A Rancho Cucamonga, they saw an opportunity. “Going into Rancho, they told me it was hitter friendly, so they made some adjustments to my swing. Damon Mashore helped me out,” Bellinger remembers. “I created a little bit more of a consistent path to the ball, just to backspin the ball. I never knew how to backspin balls before.”

Here’s Bellinger in 2013 in high school, thanks to Bullpen Banter. You can hear the power in the bat, already.

Here’s Bellinger almost two years later, thanks to Prospect Pipeline. This video was filmed at the end of a season that saw him hit 30 homers in Rancho Cucamonga. Watch his load and his finish in particular.

“When I first signed in Rookie ball, it was a whole body load, so I would miss pitches and swing hard and topspin the ball,” Bellinger recounted. “I learned in Rancho that I needed to be more handsy — I have these fast hands — loading with my hands creates more consistent. With balls I was topspinning, I started getting them up in the air, and that combined well with my decent bat speed.”

Yes. Bellinger has “decent bat speed.” That, along with his uppercut swing, has translated well to success in the air in the big leagues. He’s on a short list of players that have plus velocity in the air and also hit the ball in the air a ton.

Top 25 in Launch Angle & Fly Ball Exit Velo
Player Launch Angle Rank Fly Ball Exit Velo Rank
Joey Gallo 3rd 3rd
Cody Bellinger 12th 17th
Miguel Sano 20th 2nd
SOURCE: Statcast

You might notice that strikeouts have gone up with each period. He’s not so sure that it’s because his angle has increased. “I’ve been so young in all the leagues I’ve been in, so a lot of it is an adjustment to the league,” he pointed out. “Strikeouts usually came a lot in the beginning of the season.” The Dodgers slugger has always been at least two years younger than league average and averaged around three-and-a-half years younger than the competition.

“They’re racking up a little bit,” he admitted of the strikeouts this year. But he wasn’t too worried. “Usually pitchers adjust to the hitters before the hitters adjust to the pitchers. Once you start struggling, you say, ‘Okay, here’s where we make a tweak to the plan.'”

One tweak he makes daily is to actually calm down the uppercut in his swing. “I do a high-ball drill where the ball is high and it makes you swing down on the ball,” Bellinger said. That might make you double take, considering the swings you saw above — he doesn’t seem like a “swing down on the ball” kinda guy. “I have an uppercut, so if I work on the uppercut in the cage, it’ll be too big of an uppercut,” he explained. “I work in the cage on leveling it and then in the game it’s an uppercut but not as big. You don’t want to overdo it.”

So, it’s true that Bellinger has always swung hard. But it’s also true that this powerful swing of his was fine tuned, coached into being, and still requires tweaks to maintain. It’s true of all beauty, that there’s hard work going on under the surface.





With a phone full of pictures of pitchers' fingers, strange beers, and his two toddler sons, Eno Sarris can be found at the ballpark or a brewery most days. Read him here, writing about the A's or Giants at The Athletic, or about beer at October. Follow him on Twitter @enosarris if you can handle the sandwiches and inanity.

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Shirtless Bartolo Colon
6 years ago

I have an uppergut, so if I work on the uppergut, it will be too big of an uppergut.