2019 MLB was a season to remember for the ages. 2019 was an electric year of pop, power and history. The Minnesota Twins broke an MLB single season record by slashing 304 home runs as team. Rookie Mets first baseman slugger, Pete Alonso hit 53 bombs, breaking an MLB record for home runs hit by a rookie. The Washington Nationals were below .500 for most of the season and were the underdogs of the postseason and the the World Series, taking the Astros to 7 games and winning in comeback victory. 2019 had so much entertaining times, but none other came close to the tight race for the NL MVP featuring eventual MVP winner Cody Bellinger beat out Christian Yelich, who took home the award a year prior.

Cody Bellinger had an impressive 2019 season in which he hit 47 home runs, drove in 115 RBIs, and had a .305 batting average. He is one of only 42 players in MLB history to achieve this feat. Bellinger had an exceptional first month of the season, hitting 14 home runs, 37 RBIs, and having a .434 batting average with a 1.414 OPS in his first 30 games. Only three other players in MLB history have started a season with similar statistics: Josh Hamilton, Mickey Mantle, and Willie Mays. However, Bellinger had a higher OPS than all of them after 30 games.

It looked like it was going to be an amazing future for Bellinger, little did baseball know the struggles he would have after his two years of MVP caliber success. Since slashing .282/.374/.549/.924 for the combined two years he was hardly the same player after that. For 3 seasons after his MVP season Bellinger slashed .204/.279/.382/.661. At his worst he was 56% below league average for hitting and his best was 22% below average. Nonetheless Bellinger struggle mightily, and after endless chances by the Dodgers they finally DFA’d him after the 2022 campaign when Bellinger was barely a productive player.

It seemed all hope was lost for the centerfielder until the Cubs swooped in and offered Bellinger a 1 year prove it deal for $12.5 million for 2023 and a $25 million dollar option for 2024. It didn’t seem this deal was worth it after Bellinger struggled in the first two weeks of the 2023 campaign until the bat started to heat up and heat up big time.

He is revitalizing his 2019 form with his first 5 hit game since August 2019 last week against the Rockies. In the past week Bellinger batted over .370, collected 10 hits to go with his 22 hits this season, 3 home runs and an OPS over 1.200. He is currently top 5 in position player WAR (1.2) It looks like ‘Belly Bombs’ is back and ready for ready for his revenge tour. After being counted out many times and disregarded for his past talents Bellinger came to Wrigley with the sight at flipping the narrative people have held over him for years. In a contract year Bellinger has come out and proved the haters wrong, and shown he isn’t gone. It may be a reflection of the Dodgers hitting coaches not providing adequate revisions to Bellinger’s swing or it could be the struggle overtook his confidence and needed a fresh start to get back to his MVP caliber self. The season is far from over, but at the looks of it if Bellinger keeps it up he will replicate his 2019 MVP numbers with 185 hits, 39 bombs, and 116 RBIS and 69 walks. Whatever success Bellinger has this season will prove the 1 year deal to be a major win for the Cubs who currently sit 12-9 in 3rd place. Whatever his stats may be in the end, there’s only one thing that matters and that’s Bellinger is back.