National League Rookie of the Year: Five early candidates
By Jason Evans
1B/OF Cody Bellinger – Los Angeles Dodgers
What Aaron Judge has done for the New York Yankees has been remarkable thus far. Cody Bellinger is doing his best imitation of Judge for the Dodgers as a big left-handed power bat to go along with last year’s National League Rookie of the Year, Corey Seager.
Bellinger leads all NL rookies with 18 homers, 40 RBI and a .942 OPS. Bellinger even became the first lefty to homer off Andrew Miller since last September earlier this week.
He’s got that sweet, left-handed Ken Griffey Jr.-like swing and has made a huge impact on the Dodgers for not only the amount of homers he’s hit, but homers in big situations like the one above.
In a year where Adrian Gonzalez has spent time on the DL for the first time in his career, and guys like Joc Pederson, Andrew Toles and Andre Ethier have all been hurt, turning to Bellinger for some left-handed pop has been a huge reason the Dodgers are right there in the National League West again.