Cody Bellinger One of Worst Postseason Players in Baseball History

by Julian Spivey
Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder/first baseman Cody Bellinger struck out in his lone at-bat in game five of the 2018 World Series on Sunday, Oct. 28 in a pinch hit appearance in the eighth inning when the Dodgers desperately needed to mount a comeback to extend the series. The K dropped his series batting average to .063 and was a predictable ending to Bellinger’s World Series.
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Cody Bellinger is the worst postseason player I’ve ever seen in over 20 years of watching baseball. He’s probably one of the worst, if not the worst, postseason players in baseball history.

Bellinger, the reigning National League Rookie of the Year, has appeared in the World Series in both of his MLB seasons and in his first last year he set a record by striking out 17 times (59 percent of his time at bat) in a seven game series and hit just .143 against the Houston Astros. This year he only struck out six times in his 16 at-bats, as he’s been turned into a platoon player in Dave Roberts’ splits heavy offense, but that’s still 38 percent of his time at the plate. Even when he wasn’t striking out against the Boston Red Sox he wasn’t getting on base, with just one hit and no walks in the series. He also made a huge baserunning blunder in the marathon game three that the Dodgers would end up winning anyway.

Bellinger’s postseason batting average through two seasons (30 games) is .174 and it’s mostly that high because of a good 2017 NLCS against the Chicago Cubs. In three series this postseason he hit a measly .118, but somehow managed to be named the NLCS MVP against the Milwaukee Brewers pretty much solely for a big three-run homer, despite being right at the Mendoza line for that series.

Watching Bellinger perform in the postseason and especially the World Series was infuriating and this is from an objective party who just wanted to see good baseball. I can’t imagine how Dodgers fans feel about him right now.

The most annoying factor is that Bellinger has been a very solid player for the Dodgers in his first two seasons, being named to an All Star team and winning Rookie of the Year in 2017 and hitting 64 homers and driving in 173 runs in his first 294 games of his career. In those two seasons he hit a solid .263.

The only thing I can think of for Bellinger’s postseason struggles is he’s just in his head with baseball’s version of the yips. Maybe he’s trying too hard? But, it’s been very painful to watch over these last two postseasons.

Can you think of a postseason player who’s ever been this bad?  

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