After giving the Daily Belli watch the weekend off, here we sit on Monday morning with Cody Bellinger still a free agent, and the Cubs still the best match for his talents.

But wait! This Los Angeles Times article from Saturday says the Angels might be interested in Bellinger:

Bellinger could replace a chunk — but not all — of Ohtani’s power and give the Angels a Gold Glove-caliber defender in either center field, necessitating the long-anticipated move of Mike Trout to left, or at first base, where Bellinger could play if rookie Nolan Schanuel struggles in his first full season.

Honestly, the LAT article doesn’t really “link” Bellinger to the Angels at all. All it says is that Bellinger’s talent could fit some missing pieces on the Angels’ roster.

And there are a lot of missing pieces. Let’s look at the Angels. On July 31, 2023, just before last summer’s trade deadline, the Angels were 56-51, 4½ games out of first place in the AL West and just three games out of the last wild card spot. That turned them into buyers instead of sellers at the deadline. They acquired Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez from the White Sox, Randal Grichuk and C.J. Cron from the Rockies and Dominic Leone from the Mets.

Whoops. That didn’t work. The Angels went 17-38 after July 31, the worst record in the AL and second-worst in MLB only to the Rockies. A lot of that, of course, was losing Shohei Ohtani to an injury — Ohtani pitched only once after August 9 and didn’t play at all after September 3. The Angels dumped a bunch of people on waivers at the end of August, including three (Giolito, Lopez and Leone) they had acquired at the deadline.

This offseason, they’ve been quiet. They acquired Evan White from the Braves and their only “major” signing has been reliever Robert Stephenson. They don’t seem anywhere near contention. They were a 73-win team last year and seem likely to be no better in 2024.

What sense would it make for Cody Bellinger to join that bunch? Sure, you might say the Angels could outbid the Cubs and for sure, the Angels have made expensive signings that didn’t move the needle for them (Anthony Rendon).

The Cubs, right now, are a better team than the Angels. If Bellinger wants to be on a playoff contender, he should sign with the Cubs, not with the team in Anaheim.

As always, today would be a very good day for the Cubs to re-sign Cody Bellinger.