Cody Bellinger Signs with the Cubs and Other Cubs Weekend Cactus League Observations

The story of the weekend was a late night bombshell by ESPN’s Jeff Passan, alerting the world that Cody Bellinger was (finally) signing with the Chicago Cubs.

Passan broke the news overnight on Saturday into Sunday, causing Brett — and I might get in trouble for this — to sprint to his office in his underwear after seeing the news during a moment in the early hours of Sunday when nature called.

There’s not one person in this business more dedicated to covering the Chicago Cubs than Brett Taylor, with or without pants. I promise you that.

Bellinger’s long-anticipated deal with the Cubs is for three years, $80 million dollars. It’s a unique contract that will pay Bellinger $30 million this season, $30 million in 2025 (if he doesn't opt out after the first year) and $20 million in 2026 (if he doesn't opt out after the second year), according to Passan.

Honestly, it’s a best of both worlds deal for Bellinger and the Cubs. Bellinger gets the AAV he was looking for and the ability to become a free agent after the season if he can have another solid year with the Cubs and cash in again.

For the Cubs, it gives them Bellinger in center field this season, and the ability to give Pete Crow-Armstrong another year to develop before becoming the everyday centerfielder on the north side of Chicago.

Sometimes things just work out perfectly for everyone involved, and I would call this one of those times.

Brett has more on the Bellinger deal and implications:

Michael — I’m assuming with pants on — also has some thoughts on the Bellinger deal.

All right, let’s get into some observations from the Cubs first three Cactus League games this weekend.

Christopher Morel’s bat will play, and perhaps his glove (at third base) will too

It took exactly on plate appearance this spring for Christopher Morel to remind everyone why Craig Counsell wants to find him a home defensively. Morel’s first Cactus League plate appearance was a two-run home run over the left field fence at Sloan Park against the White Sox on Friday.

Editor’s note: I would love to show you the home run, but I received word from a reader on Friday that embedding videos in tweets has translated to still images in the newsletter upon delivery. That’s near the top of my list of things to figure out this week.

Morel’s bat will play. That’s not a question after he crushed 26 home runs in 107 games with the Cubs last season.

The glove is the question. But it looked sufficient this weekend. Morel made every play afforded to him in two games this weekend, including a heck of a diving stab on Sunday to take away a hit from Padres catcher Kyle Higashioka.

Seeing Morel make the routine plays, and the extra-ordinary plays is a nice sight in the infancy of the Cubs Cactus League schedule here in late February.

Caleb Kilian was damn good on Friday

Bullpen depth is one of the most precious commodities in baseball, especially in a day and age where starters are turning in shorter performances routinely. The Cactus League is where you often find arms to fill those valuable roles, and Caleb Kilian looked the part on Friday afternoon against the White Sox.

Kilian — who had a rocky 5.1 innings of work with the Cubs last season — threw two perfect innings with two strikeouts against the White Sox. The impressive takeaway was the location and velocity in which Kilian operated with in his two innings of work.

Kilian’s career four-seam fastball velocity checks in at 94.4 miles per hour (via Fangraphs), but he was operating in the upper 90s on Friday afternoon and had swing and miss stuff.

According to Baseball Savant, Killian’s average fastball velocity was in the 48th percentile the last two seasons and his whiff rate was among the worst in baseball.

Obviously this is the smallest of sample sizes, but it was encouraging nonetheless.

Pete Crow-Armstrong has zero chill