Cody Bellinger injury will almost certainly impact the Cubs' plans heading into 2025

Losing your highest-paid player (not to mention the one who put your team on his back last summer) isn't ideal, especially as the Chicago Cubs attempt to scratch and claw their way back to relevance heading into the All-Star break.

But that's where we're at, with the two-time All-Star heading to the 10-day IL with a broken finger after being hit by a pitch on Wednesday in Baltimore. Meanwhile, the Cubs have rattled off four consecutive wins, sweeping the Orioles, narrowing their deficit for the third NL wild card spot to just three games.

A strong weekend in St. Louis, which will prove to be quite the test with four games in three days to close out the first half, could push president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer back into the 'buy' column ahead of the deadline. But the loss of Bellinger, one of the Cubs' hottest trade chips should they sell, seems likely to impact the team well beyond July 30.

Cody Bellinger seems likely to return to the Cubs via his player option

We all remember the sense of relief we felt when Bellinger's drawn-out free agent journey ended early this year with a return to Wrigleyville. What was described as a three-year, $80 million deal is more complex than that, though, with Bellinger having opt-outs after both 2024 and 2025.

He was probably borderline on whether or not he'd test the open market again this winter prior to the injury given his lack of power this year, but if this either keeps him out for a considerable stretch or further saps his ability to slug, it feels like a certainty he'd opt into his $27.5 million player option for 2025.

That's not necessarily a bad thing for Chicago, but they'd certainly expect production closer to in line with what we got in 2023, when Bellinger turned in a 134 wRC+ and 4.3 fWAR, both representing his best single-season marks since his 2019 MVP performance.

This year, he's still been an above-average player, but is on pace to be closer to 2.5 fWAR and a 110 wRC+, which makes his price tag a little harder to swallow. Hopefully, he can bounce back from this fairly quickly and can have a summer impact like he did as the Cubs surged back last season. But, at least right now, it feels like we'll see him back next year as he looks to put together another strong platform campaign before testing the market again.