Hoyer feeling out market with Bellinger back in fold

SAN ANTONIO -- Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer had conversations with agent Scott Boras over the past couple of weeks that gave him a sense of what was to come on the Cody Bellinger front. Increasingly, the belief inside Chicago’s front office was that the star outfielder planned on staying put.

That internal belief was solidified publicly over the weekend, when Bellinger made his decision to exercise his option for the 2025 season with the Cubs. For Hoyer and his group in the Cubs’ offices, that created a better sense of direction for this week’s General Managers Meetings and the coming offseason months.

“Anytime a really good player decides to stay with you, that's good news,” Hoyer said in the lobby of the JW Marriott in San Antonio on Monday night. “It mostly just gives us clarity. Now we know what our roster looks like, and now we can go about building a team. Before that, there was some uncertainty.”

Hoyer said the plan now was to spend the next few days at the Meetings sitting down with other executives and agents to get “a feel for the market” as this offseason gets underway. The Cubs will be on the hunt for rotation help, bullpen reinforcements, depth behind the plate and offensive help as the team tries to end its four-year playoff drought.

Bellinger’s decision to stay with the Cubs via his $27.5 million option keeps him in the fold as the primary right fielder, alongside Pete Crow-Armstrong in center and Gold Glove winner Ian Happ in left. Seiya Suzuki, who also plays right field, is likely to serve as Chicago’s main designated hitter under the current roster makeup.

• How Bellinger's return could forge Cubs' offseason path

“I thought Seiya did a great job when he was DH’ing,” Hoyer said. “Anytime you just have depth at a bunch of positions, [let’s say] you lose an outfielder, and all of a sudden to have the ability to slot a guy like that in is really nice. Seiya had a great year.”

Hoyer noted that Suzuki was in the top 10 in the National League in OPS (he ranked eighth among qualified hitters with an .848 mark), but added that Bellinger is Chicago’s best defensive choice in right field. In fact, Bellinger’s lone career Gold Glove came for his work as a right fielder for the Dodgers in 2019.

While discussing winning his third straight Gold Glove Award on Sunday night, Happ said it was “super exciting” to have Bellinger back for next season.

“I texted him right away and am just pumped,” Happ said. “He’s going to go out there and play a bunch of right field for us and be able to hit right in the middle of our lineup, and do what he does and drive in runs. I’m excited to have him back. It’s huge for this group and what he means for us, not only as a baseball player, but just as a person and a teammate.”

Bellinger had a standout showing on a one-year deal with the Cubs in 2023, hitting .307 with 26 homers, 97 RBIs, 95 runs, 20 steals and an .881 OPS. He picked up a Silver Slugger Award, was named the National League’s Comeback Player of the Year and received down-ballot votes for the NL MVP trophy.

This past season, a pair of injuries -- Bellinger fractured two ribs on a catch attempt on April 23 and later was hit by a pitch on July 10 that fractured his left middle finger -- limited him to 130 games. The 29-year-old hit .266 with 18 homers, 78 RBIs, a .751 OPS and 111 OPS+ (11% above MLB average).

That performance came under the first season of the three-year, $80 million deal he signed with the Cubs in the spring to stay in the fold. The outfielder (and part-time first baseman) will again have the ability to opt out of the deal next winter, when he holds a $25 million player option (or $5 million buyout) for the 2026 season.

Had Bellinger hit the open market this offseason, the Cubs would have likely been targeting hitters who could fill a corner-outfield spot or DH. That now becomes more of a challenge, barring Hoyer and his front-office team get creative via trades.

For now, Hoyer was just focused on the fact that keeping Bellinger is a positive first step to the offseason.

“It's great,” Hoyer said. “We signed him to that deal. We love him as a player.”