Cody Bellinger is slumping again as he searches to rediscover his MVP form

Dave Roberts appeared like a professor instructing a category on the complexities of hitting.

The Dodgers’ supervisor used technical phrases like “flexion,” “levers” and “barred out.” He dissected next-level batting nuances, from base width at hand placement to firing place firstly of every swing. He spent 10 minutes Saturday attempting once more to clarify the persevering with evolution of Cody Bellinger’s swing.

Roberts’ message to his uber-talented however ever-inconsistent middle fielder, nevertheless, is rather more easy.

“Be a superb hitter first.”

It’s an goal Bellinger has struggled to realize this spring, with time working brief for him to snap a preseason stoop — one that appears eerily just like his career-worst efficiency final 12 months — earlier than the beginning of the common season.

In seven Cactus League video games, the 2019 Nationwide League MVP has struck out in 14 of 19 at-bats. Of his three hits, none have gone for additional bases. And even after discovering success within the playoffs final season, he’s attempting to remake his swing once more, hoping to discover a “completely happy medium” between the participant he was and the one he’s now.

“Consider it or not, I’m really feeling lots higher than the outcomes are saying,” Bellinger mentioned Sunday, answering one other spherical of acquainted questions on his struggles on the plate. “That’s actual. That’s what spring coaching is about, clearly. You don’t wish to do what I’m doing, however I really feel higher than what the stat sheets are displaying.”

Alarm bells aren’t ringing but. It’s nonetheless March, and Roberts believes Bellinger’s timing is the issue greater than anything. For now, his function because the crew’s on a regular basis middle fielder stays protected. And the hope is that, with extra at-bats, he’ll develop extra snug together with his latest iteration of mechanics on the plate.

However even Roberts acknowledged that Bellinger, who struck out in all 4 of his at-bats in a Saturday evening sport towards the Kansas Metropolis Royals, may gain advantage from higher outcomes proper now.

Till then, the Dodgers can solely hope his spring stoop doesn’t stretch into the common season.

“The efficiency is as much as Cody,” Roberts mentioned. “It’s our job as coaches to create an setting and the work to permit him to succeed. However on the finish of the day, he’s the one within the batter’s field. He is aware of that, and he’s received to provide. He’s a giant a part of what we wish to do that 12 months. He’s a giant a part of it, and he is aware of that.”

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Clay Bellinger watched his son’s struggles construct final 12 months.

A former main leaguer himself, Clay is aware of higher than most the curler coaster that baseball may be. Bellinger’s 2021 season, nevertheless, was extra like a bungee bounce, plummeting down, down, down till rebounding on the very finish.

“He was annoyed to say the least,” Clay mentioned. “Accidents had been the No. 1 drawback. … After which clearly, considering you’re respectable, after which whether or not or not your physique’s not 100%, you’re overcompensating — you hear it on a regular basis. I don’t suppose he’ll ever admit to that. However only a horrible 12 months. And he understands it.”

Accidents certainly performed an element. Bellinger had a shoulder process earlier than final season, the results of his celebratory arm bang with then-teammate Kiké Hernández the postseason earlier than. An early season leg fracture additional derailed his rhythm.

However even when he returned to the lineup in late Might, the massive looping movement he has used since his Little League days wasn’t working. He posted among the worst numbers of any beginning participant within the majors. He completed the season with a forty five OPS+, 55% beneath league common within the all-encompassing superior metric.

“His swing has at all times been one the place, it’s distinctive,” Clay mentioned. “He’s received to be on time and proper quite a lot of the time. It simply wasn’t like that final 12 months, for some motive.”

Clay, like many different observers of Bellinger’s season, got here to the identical conclusion.

“I simply advised him: ‘Dude, change one thing up. It might probably’t get any worse,’ ” he mentioned. “‘Change one thing up and see in case you get a really feel. For those who go 0 for 4, you go 0 for 4. You’ve been 0 for 4 lots this 12 months.’”

Cody Bellinger, left, and Gavin Lux stroll to batting observe March 13.

(Ross D. Franklin / Related Press)

The changes lastly got here in early September, with Bellinger simplifying his swing. He dropped his arms. He shortened his stroke. He refined his method too, reducing down on strikeouts and stringing collectively extra aggressive at-bats.

The outcomes confirmed within the postseason. Although he didn’t have as a lot energy as ordinary, Bellinger grew to become one of many Dodgers’ most constant hitters, batting .353 with seven RBIs and a .906 on-base-plus-slugging proportion.

“He made a better swing,” Clay mentioned. “And he began feeling snug with it.”

So how come Bellinger is tweaking together with his swing once more this spring?

Bellinger and Roberts trotted out the identical line, claiming they hope it may possibly assist him rediscover his type of previous, when he was one of the vital harmful hitters in baseball and gained MVP honors

Roberts described Bellinger’s method within the playoffs final 12 months as “survival and compete mode,” acknowledging the left-handed slugger was sacrificing energy for contact as he continued to rebuild power in his shoulder.

Bellinger echoed comparable sentiments, explaining there’s a “completely happy medium” he’s attempting to realize as he will get wholesome once more.

“My shoulder and physique are feeling stronger than they did within the postseason,” he mentioned. “I’m feeling extra snug the place I’ve had quite a lot of success up to now. It’s all about discovering that method, and like I mentioned, I really feel nearer than what it seems.”

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Cody Bellinger warms up throughout a spring sport towards the Seattle Mariners on March 19.

(Charlie Riedel / Related Press)

Bellinger didn’t seem like a participant mired in a stoop Sunday.

As a substitute, he carried an upbeat perspective across the clubhouse, battling reliever Brusdar Graterol in a pingpong sport, signing autographs for teenagers on the membership’s household day and chopping it up with actor Rob Lowe, who was visiting the ability for the day.

Even whereas getting peppered by reporters about his spring coaching struggles, Bellinger’s temper didn’t dip.

He joked round, saying he’s merely attempting to get his “punchies” (a.ok.a. strikeouts) out of the way in which in March earlier than video games begin to depend. He laughed about how fatherhood — he had his first little one over the offseason — has made him wiser. And he downplayed any frustration he is likely to be feeling, noting that Roberts has assured him his place within the lineup stays protected.

“That helps the method lots,” he mentioned. “He’s received my again 100%, as do my teammates. I don’t take that frivolously. … I’m nonetheless working on daily basis to show why I’m that man. However with that, I’m actually not centered on outcomes proper now and getting again to being who I’m going to be.”

Who precisely Bellinger is, nevertheless, stays unclear.

Even he acknowledged, “I’m not who I used to be at 23,” when he locked up the MVP award throughout a blistering begin to that season. However he doesn’t consider he’s the offensive legal responsibility he was for many of final season.

“I actually do really feel shut,” he mentioned. “I really feel very assured in what I’m doing.”

Nonetheless, for a participant who’s making $17 million this season, who is predicted to be a key cog within the Dodgers’ loaded lineup, and who was presupposed to be one in all their stars of the longer term, the clock is ticking to proper his sport once more.

And recently, his efficiency is trending within the incorrect course.

The Dodgers’ Cody Bellinger, left, and Tomás Telis wait their flip for batting observe March 13 at spring coaching.

(Ross D. Franklin / Related Press)

Saturday’s four-strikeout fiasco heightened these considerations. Roberts referred to as it “the primary time I felt like issues sped up on him,” and Bellinger admitted that by his final journey to the plate, he had gotten out of kinds.

On Sunday morning, Bellinger dropped by Roberts’ workplace to speak concerning the state of his sport and his plan for the week.

The middle fielder was already set to get Sunday’s sport off, and Roberts advised him he might determine whether or not he needs to get again into Cactus League video games this week or get at-bats throughout simulated motion on the again fields of the crew’s spring coaching advanced.

They talked about Bellinger’s mindset too and the necessity to stability his mechanical tweaks with a constant method.

Then, earlier than Bellinger left, Roberts reminded him once more of his overarching message: Be a superb hitter first.

As Roberts recalled, Bellinger smiled and responded: “I’m glad it’s spring coaching.”

It gained’t be for for much longer.