Cubs' Cody Bellinger placed on IL, former top prospect recalled

The Cubs will place outfielder Cody Bellinger on the injured list due to a fractured rib, per Robert Murray of FanSided, relaying words from manager Craig Counsell on 670 The Score. Fellow outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong will be recalled in a corresponding move.

On Tuesday night, Bellinger crashed into the wall at Wrigley Field while attempting to make a catch and was later removed. The club announced that he had a right rib contusion, with Counsell saying after the game that the initial X-rays came back negative. Further testing appears to have revealed a fracture, and Bellinger will require a stint on the injured list to heal.

It’s unclear at this point exactly how much time Bellinger will need to heal this fracture, but the club will likely provide more information Wednesday or in the coming days. Either way, it’s an unfortunate blow for the club as Bellinger was just starting to heat up at the plate.

He hit .167/.270/.296 through his first 14 contests but his line in his past eight games was .333/.412/.700. Instead of building on that momentum, he’ll now have to sit out while dealing with this rib injury for some unknown amount of time.

The Cubs already have several pitchers on the injured list, and Wednesday’s news will leave them doubly shorthanded in the outfield. Seiya Suzuki went on the IL last week due to an oblique strain and is looking at an absence of about a month.

Those injuries will open the door for Crow-Armstrong to get another shot in the majors. He’s long been considered an excellent defender but with less certainty about his offense. He got his first taste of the majors late last year but hit just .000/.176/.000 through his first 19 plate appearances. He’s also been struggling in Triple-A this year, with a line of .203/.241/.392 in 83 plate appearances down there.

Despite the lack of offense lately, Crow-Armstrong might get decent playing time in center field while Bellinger is out. As mentioned, he should at least provide the Cubs with strong glovework, but the hitting will be more of a question mark. Ideally, he could return to the form he showed before his promotion last year when he hit .283/.365/.511 between Double-A and Triple-A. Some combination of Ian Happ, Mike Tauchman and Alexander Canario will also be in the mix for outfield playing time, with Patrick Wisdom heading out to the grass occasionally.

For Bellinger personally, this injury may dent his plans to return to the open market in search of the long-term contract he didn’t find this winter. Though he hit .307/.356/.525 for the Cubs last year while also providing strong outfield defense, teams around the league were hesitant about his injury-induced struggles in previous seasons. He required shoulder surgery after the 2020 season and hit just .193/.256/.355 over the two subsequent campaigns.

Even though his results were good last year, he also spent some time on the injured list due to a left knee contusion. Even when he returned from the IL, the Cubs kept him at first base for a while to limit the wear and tear on him instead of running him out to the more demanding position of center field.

The bounceback in 2023 wasn’t enough to get Bellinger the mega-deal he was likely hoping to secure, and he returned to the Cubs on a three-year deal that allows him to opt out after each season. After inking that deal, the ideal scenario would have seen Bellinger stay healthy and productive for the whole year, therefore casting aside some of the doubts about his health and long-term viability. Each day he spends on the injured list this year will limit his ability to shift the narrative before deciding whether to trigger his opt-out at the end of the season.