The Los Angeles Dodgers made a big roster move on Friday. The Dodgers have officially parted ways with former NL Rookie of the Year and MVP Cody Bellinger. Bellinger was non-tendered by the club. The Athletic‘s Ken Rosenthal first reported the news of the non-tender on Twitter.

He wrote, “The Dodgers plan to non-tender outfielder Cody Bellinger, making him a free agent.”

Bellinger spent six seasons with the Dodgers dating back to 2017. He immediately burst onto the scene as he won the 2017 NL Rookie of the Year award in unanimous fashion. Two years later, Bellinger celebrated with the NL MVP award. Then in 2020, Bellinger finally won a World Series with the team.

But inconsistencies at the plate and poor performance led to this conclusion. It was speculated that the team would make this move. Unfortunately, Cody never returned to his 2019 form. He hit a meager .165 with a .240 OBP in 2021 and then followed that up with marks of .210 and .265 in 2022.

As Rosenthal reported, the team could still re-sign Bellinger. He wrote, “Team could still re-sign him for less than his projected arbitrations salary in the $18M range.”

The question is: Do the Dodgers want to do that? Or does the team have other things in mind? If you are to believe Jon Paul Morosi of Fox, well. There’s one theory that could add up.

[Ken Rosenthal]

About Chris Novak

Chris Novak has been talking and writing about sports ever since he can remember. Previously, Novak wrote for and managed sites in the SB Nation network for nearly a decade from 2013-2022