Before watching closer Adbert Alzolay and the Cubs’ bullpen cling to a 4-3 victory Friday against the rival Cardinals, manager David Ross was asked how his players deal with late-July headlines that increasingly project them to be dealt to new teams before the trade deadline Aug. 1.
‘‘Distractions are a part of our game,’’ Ross said. ‘‘They understand they’ve got to go to work and this is their job.’’
Cody Bellinger’s demeanor certainly doesn’t project a man weighed down by outside stress. Nor do his deeds, as Bellinger’s three-hit game included a towering blast to right field for his 13th home run. The two-run shot helped power a four-run third inning that proved to be just enough to make a winner out of starter Justin Steele (10-3) after Mark Leiter Jr. and Alzolay wriggled out of jams in the final two innings.
‘‘A lot of it is out of my control,’’ Bellinger, the 2019 National League MVP, said of the mounting trade rumors. ‘‘If I go, where I go, whatever happens, I can only focus on the game.’’
‘‘He doesn’t overthink things,’’ Ross said of Bellinger. ‘‘He handles everything the same. Even when he’s scuffling, he feels like he’s locked in.’’
Brought to the North Side on a one-year, make-good deal after a couple of down seasons with the Dodgers, Bellinger has been looking to demonstrate his value all season. Going by the all-in-one offensive metric weighted runs created-plus, he has demonstrated himself once again to be a top-20 hitter in the sport, and few of the players above him can offer above-average center-field defense, too.
‘‘Everybody in the clubhouse would say he’s amazing, love having him here,’’ Steele said. ‘‘It’s also sick that he smacks homers, too.’’
Utility player Miles Mastrobuoni echoed the endorsement of Bellinger as a teammate on the heels of hitting his first career homer.
‘‘I’ve been picking his brain lately, just swing stuff and whatnot, and he’s been great to me from the start,’’ Mastrobuoni said.
Pending free agents on non-contenders playing half as well as Bellinger are typically trade chips at this time of year. If Bellinger had any lingering unawareness that his contract situation, his .317/.371/.542 batting line and the Cubs’ standing in the NL Central will make him the subject of bids from other clubs, that naivete was flattened by a postgame scrum that focused on little else.
‘‘I’ve never been in this situation before, so I don’t know what to say or not to say,’’ Bellinger said. ‘‘We’re a very open-communication group here. I’m in the loop on what can happen.’’
Amid an inconsistent season for the Cubs’ power bats, Bellinger controlling what he can control in the middle of the order has propped up a viable attack. Removing him, right-hander Marcus Stroman or any player part of making the Cubs a better team right now can lend a feeling of surrender to the final two months of a season.
That can be a difficult environment to play — or to manage — in if you’re the type of skipper who hates losing as much as Ross.
‘‘What gives you that impression?’’ Ross said with a wry smile. ‘‘I’m unaffected by the trade deadline; I’m affected by the losses.’’
Jokes aside, Ross offered that the task of trying to win games daily is a salve for when deadline moves might suggest the season is effectively over. And he recounted with pride that the Cubs played above-.500 ball after the All-Star break last season, even after the front office traded away the core of his bullpen.
A soft ending schedule, Ross noted, sets up for a similar finish. But reversing the Cubs’ direction is likely one of those things the clubhouse no longer can control.
