Talking about the Cubs, Wrigley Field, and free agency, Scott Boras and Cody Bellinger
Baseball’s super-agent offered up his thoughts on an erratic Cubs team that’s underperformed in 2023.
All roads lead to Scott Boras. Well, that’s how it feels each offseason, with him representing the bulk of the game’s top free agents. This winter figures to be no different, with Boras clients Juan Soto, Alex Bregman, Pete Alonso and Cody Bellinger all potentially on the move.
Soto, Bregman and Alonso will be free agents. Bellinger controls his own fate via the opt-out in the three-year, $80 million deal he signed with the Chicago Cubs last winter. It feels like a coin flip as to whether or not he’ll return to the North Side, and that decision will have a major impact on how Jed Hoyer and the front office attack the offseason.
If he opts out and tests the waters of free agency again, the Cubs seem likely to head into 2024 with a familiar cast in the outfield with Ian Happ, Pete Crow-Armstrong and Seiya Suzuki from left to right. It would also mean Chicago would have close to $90 million coming off the books, which will undoubtedly make the fanbase even more hellbent on a pursuit of a high-profile free agent.
Boras has taken note of the dreadful offensive conditions in Wrigleyville this season – but, as we all know, dollars talk and the ballpark playing incredibly pitcher-friendly in 2024 shouldn’t prevent the Cubs from going out and adding offense in free agency or via trade.
“Wrigley Field is unexplainable,” Boras said Monday. “The Farmer’s Almanac applies to Wrigley Field. It didn’t rain, the crop didn’t grow. Wrigley Field had the most unusual season. It has been an offensive (drought).”
Wrigley has graded out as a solidly below-average ballpark for hitters all season long. That, paired with a lineup that’s lacked a major middle-of-the-order run producer, has led to sub-par results for a Cubs team that, once again, seems likely to be on the outside looking in as the postseason picture comes into focus.
The hope was that Bellinger, a former Rookie of the Year and MVP who carried the team offensively last summer, could be that guy. That’s not how it went – and, now, Bellinger is just focused on ending the year on a high note before contemplating his next move with Boras.
Last winter, Hoyer and Boras got into a staring match until early spring, when Boras blinked and the Cubs brought Bellinger back into the fold. He’s been a solid player, worth 1.9 fWAR, but he’s fallen well short of justifying the $27.5 million salary he’s being paid this year. Could Boras spin the hitting conditions at Wrigley into a justification for Bellinger’s step back at the plate to interested clubs this winter? It’s certainly one arrow he has in his quiver should the two-time All-Star opt out.
“I told (Boras) that I don’t even want to think about it,” Bellinger said. “Right now, I really just want to play the game that I know I can play. I want to end the season strong.”
