Cody Bellinger came up in the Dodgers system as a first baseman, and spent the majority of his 2017 Rookie of the Year campaign at the cold corner. For an athlete of his caliber, it was always a little odd to see Bellinger stuck to the lowest-priority defensive position in baseball. But by 2019, he was primarily playing the outfield—and playing it to the tune of +8 Statcast Outs Above Average. Now, his defensive acumen was understandably not the focus of his game that year: Bellinger took home NL MVP honors with 47 homers and a 1.035 OPS at the dish. But it certainly didn’t hurt his case!

As we all know, Bellinger’s offensive regression came quickly and fiercely after that MVP season, but he remained a reliable defender, primarily in center field. Eventually, his hitting rebounded, and he

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