Cubs BCB After Dark: Should Cubs Trade Bellinger?

It’s another Wednesday night here at BCB After Dark: the grooviest gathering of night owls, morning bros, new parents and Kids fans abroad. We are always happy to see you. New friends and old, all are welcome. Let us know if we can do anything for you. We still have a few tables available. The dress code is casual. There is a two-drink minimum, but it’s bring-your-own-drink.

BCB After Dark is the place to talk baseball, music, movies, or anything else you need to get off your chest, as long as it’s within the site’s rules. The late night guests are encouraged to get the party going, but everyone else is invited to join you when you wake up the next morning and into the afternoon.

Last night I asked you about the wisdom of signing free agent left-handed reliever Tanner Scott. Scott seems like a good fit for the Cubs, but then he’s also a good fit for 29 other clubs, so I pointed out that he’d probably get a four-year deal somewhere and around $15 million a year. At that price, 63 percent of you said you would pass.

Here is the part where I discuss music and movies. You don’t need to read that, and you can skip ahead if you want. You don’t want to hurt my feelings.

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Fair warning, the Christmas jazz starts next week. So if you hate it, here’s your last chance to listen to the regular stuff.

Tonight we offer a classic jazz tune played by two classic artists. This is McCoy Tyner on piano and Bobby Hutcherson playing Tyner’s “African Village” at the Kennedy Center in 2014. Both of these greats have since left us – Tyner in 2020 and Hutcherson in 2016, so it was good that they left us this gift before moving on to their next concert.

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With the holidays coming up, I thought it would be a good idea to give you something to watch when the football games end. Or if you just can’t bear to watch the Cowboys. So I made another bracket BCB Winter Hitchcock Classic.

As I outlined on Monday, our offseason film tournament this year will feature feature films directed by the Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. There aren’t many directors in the history of cinema that you can take 24 of their films to make a tournament and still feel like you missed nine or ten good ones. So I feel bad for those who didn’t make the cut. Hitchcock made 54 full-length feature films during his career, and about 40 of them are at least “good” and several are masterpieces.

(The second feature film made by Hitchcock, the 1926 silent picture Bjergernen, is lost. Hitchcock said it was a terrible film and that he was glad it was lost, although the massive problems he had filming it in the Austrian Alps may have colored his opinion of its quality. In any case The mountain eagle is at or near the top of all “Most Wanted” lost movie lists.)

Am I satisfied with the sowing? No, although I’m confident I picked the right four movies for the top four seeds—Vertigo, Psycho, Rear Window and North By Northwest. Whether I place them in the correct order is debatable, but I firmly believe that the four deserve top four seeds. I’m also quite happy with the next four seeds…Strangers on a Train, Notorious, Rope and The man who knew too much (1956). The eight films get a bye in the first round and I think they deserve it.

The order of the next 16 films may be completely out of the question for all I know. And I think the tournament focuses too much on Hitchcock’s more famous American films than it does on the earlier British films. But what would I have to leave out to include the original version of The man who knew too much or Sabotage?

In any case, here are our brackets BCB Winter Hitchcock Classic.

So if you’re looking for something to watch, I generally start with the lowest seeded film and work my way up the bracket. So the first competition will be Foreign correspondent against Rebecca. So To catch a thief against Lifeboat and so on.

I have not decided when I will start the tournament. It probably starts a week from today, and then you can have over the Thanksgiving holiday to vote. However, I may be too busy cooking the night before Thanksgiving to really get the tournament off to a good start. So we’ll see. At the latest, it starts the Monday after Thanksgiving. But you can always get a head start by watching the movies now.

Good luck to your favorite!

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Welcome back to anyone skipping the music and movies.

There was much — well, mostly — rejoicing three weeks ago when Cody Bellinger made his decision not to opt out of his deal and return to the Cubs for the 2025 season. In that article, site manager Al Yellon wrote:

So Bellinger will remain a Cub and play a third season on the North Side.

Except not so fast. Bellinger does not have a no-trade agreement, and there has been much speculation that the Cubs could try to trade him to open up right field for someone else — be it prospects Kevin Alcántara or Owen Caissie or possible free agents like Anthony Santander or Teoscar Hernández. The Cubs are looking for power, and while Bellinger is hitting some home runs, he doesn’t have the kind of power potential that these free agents have. Or even of the minor league prospects, although there would probably be some growing pains for both kids.

Bellinger is mentioned as the most likely outfielder to be traded by the Cubs because Pete Crow-Armstrong is a young, cost-controlled potential star in center field. And as we all know by now:

Seiya Suzuki, who has mostly been relegated to DH duty, says “Me too!” Also, Ian Happ and Suzuki were both better players than Bellinger 2024.

So tonight I ask “Should the Cubs trade Cody Bellinger before the start of Spring Training?” I don’t think the return on Bellinger would be great. He’s due to make $27.5 million this year, and while many teams might like a player like Bellinger, they probably think they could get more for that kind of money elsewhere. The Cubs could certainly eat a chunk of that, but at the moment the Cubs would likely be looking at a back-end starter or a couple of non-Top 100 prospects for Bellinger. Just maybe they could get a really decent second division catcher if they ate enough money or took on another bad contract.

But trading Bellinger isn’t about saving money or acquiring talent. That would be about opening up a spot for a free agent or minor league prospect. A switch hitter with power like Santander would certainly be exactly what the Cubs need right now. But the Cubs don’t have room in the lineup for him at the moment.

So do you think the Cubs should try to trade Bellinger this winter?

Thanks for stopping by this week. A special thank you must go to everyone who voted and commented. Please come home safely. Stay warm out there. Recycle any cans and bottles. Tip your waiter. And join Sara Sanchez tomorrow for more BCB After Dark.