In midst of one of the best performances by a rookie in franchise history, Los Angeles Dodgers slugger Cody Bellinger humbly revealed his personal expectations prior to the 2017 regular season.
"A September call-up. That was the goal in spring training," Bellinger told Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register following his team's 3-2 win on Saturday.
"Obviously I wanted to be up here earlier. But to be honest, the team that we had I just didn’t think there was a chance. Everything else that came this year has been crazy."
It goes without saying that Bellinger's call-up in late April has helped pave the way to the Dodgers' dominant season. On Saturday, the 22-year-old hit his 38th home run in his 118th game, placing him in a tie with Wally Berger and Frank Robinson for the National League rookie home run record.
Bellinger still trails Mark McGwire, who holds the all-time record for most home runs by a rookie with 49 in 1987.
Since making his major-league debut on April 25th, Bellinger has hit .275/.360/.611 while contributing 3.9 WAR and 144 wRC+. In the process, the young stud became the third-fastest player since 1990 to reach 30 home runs as well as the first Dodgers rookie ever to hit for the cycle.