It’s a quarter to eight on a Sunday and a sportswriter gets up from bed to go into his home office. He tells his wife, a Chicago Cubs fan, that Cody Bellinger signed while they were sleeping.
“For a lot of money?” she asks.
“Well …”
As it turns out, it was a pillow announcement over a pillow contract for Bellinger, his agent Scott Boras and Cubs president Jed Hoyer.
The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal confirmed Jeff Passan’s overnight report that Bellinger signed a deal that could potentially go for three years for a possible $80 million.
Really, it’s a one-year deal with options, just like last year but for more money. Bellinger gets $30 million this year and if he wants it, $30 million again in 2025. He can keep it rolling with $20 million in 2026. But I think we’ll see Bellinger, good health willing, test free agency again next offseason. Then Boras can get back to work and Cubs fans can get back to complaining online about Cubs owner Tom Ricketts being cheap.
A lot of money? For one year, sure. But it’s not the blockbuster, nine-figure deal that Bellinger likely expected after opting out of his deal with the Cubs last fall. Still, it’s a raise from the $17.5 million he made from the Cubs in 2023. (He also got a $1 million bonus for winning Comeback Player of…
