A hip injury delayed his rise through the Dodgers' farm system in 2016, but he was called up to the major leagues in April 2017 to bolster a struggling outfield.

However, a number of injuries to his shoulder, calf, and rib cage caused 2021 to be a career-worst year for Bellinger in home runs and batting average.

[2] His mother works for Sotheby's International Realty,[3] while his father played for the New York Yankees and Anaheim Angels of Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1999 to 2002, winning two World Series in that span.

[14] His prospect performance started to gain attention when, by June 11, he was fifth in the California League with 12 home runs, and was at least three years younger than every other top-five hitter.

[11] After a strong spring training performance in which he batted .393 in 18 games, Bellinger opened the 2016 season with the Double-A Tulsa Drillers of the Texas League.

[20] He missed the first part of the Double-A season with a strained hip, and upon returning from the disabled list in May, Bellinger struggled to make contact, batting .150 through his first 50 at-bats.

[21] He spent the bulk of the season in Tulsa, batting .263 with 23 home runs and 65 RBIs in 114 games, but was promoted to the Triple-A Oklahoma City Dodgers on September 3, in advance of the Pacific Coast League playoffs.

[26] Faced with a struggling and injured outfield, the Dodgers called Bellinger up on April 25, 2017, giving him the start in left field and eighth position in the batting order for that night's game against the San Francisco Giants.

[29][30] His first career grand slam came the following week on May 6, helping take the Dodgers to a 10–2 victory over the San Diego Padres and Bellinger to five home runs and 14 RBIs in his first 11 major league games.

[33] In the first inning of an outing against the New York Mets on June 19, his 51st career MLB game, Bellinger tied Gary Sánchez and Wally Berger as the fastest players to reach 20 home runs.

[34] The following day, a first-inning hit off of Robert Gsellman helped Bellinger to become the first rookie in MLB history to record 10 home runs in a span of 10 games.

[49] He hit the first home run of the season, a two-run shot off of Josh Osich of the Giants to spur the Dodgers to a 9–0 victory and end Bellinger's opening 0-for-11 skid.

Bellinger, meanwhile, used the benching to make a small adjustment to his stance in the batter's box, and he proceeded to record six hits in his next 13 at-bats, including home runs in four consecutive games.

[44] Bellinger helped the Dodgers to capture the NL West title with the go-ahead two-run home run in a tiebreaker game against the Colorado Rockies on October 1.

After hitting the go-ahead home run in Game 7 that clinched the National League pennant for the Dodgers, Bellinger was named the NLCS MVP for the 2018 season.

[55] Despite receiving his NLCS honor, Bellinger started only two games in the 2018 World Series, with manager Dave Roberts preferring to platoon almost every position.

[56][58] Bellinger started the 2019 season on a hot streak, leading MLB in runs, hits, batting average, and slugging percentage by the end of April.

[68] Outside of these records, Bellinger's production began to slow after the All-Star break; he batted just .256 in the second half of the season, with a .906 OPS and only 13 home runs in the final 51 games of the year.

[75] When MLB announced the indefinite suspension of the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Bellinger went back to Arizona and focused on tweaking his swing in a "stress-free environment".

[69] The 2020 season proved to be a struggle for many of MLB's top hitters: five of the 15 batters who showed the largest drop in slugging percentage were previous MVP winners or finalists, including Bellinger.

Bellinger's drops in batting average and slugging percentage, the latter of which fell from .670 in 2019 to .354 in 2020, were explained by his constant experimentation with his swing, which prevented him from locking into pitches the way he had the season prior.

In the seventh inning, with Grisham on second base, Bellinger made a jumping catch to rob Fernando Tatis Jr. of a two-run home run.

[84] Despite injuring his shoulder during the NLCS, Bellinger continued to play in the World Series, and he celebrated his Game 1 home run by foot-tapping his teammates rather than high-fiving them.

[86] Bellinger, who had repeatedly injured his right shoulder by diving for ground balls throughout his professional baseball career, underwent surgery for the affected arm in November 2020.

He revealed later that while celebrating his NLCS-winning home run that October, he had dislocated his shoulder by connecting too strongly with teammate Enrique Hernández' arm.

[94] At the end of the month, Roberts decided to relegate Bellinger to a platoon role in the outfield, starting A. J. Pollock, Mookie Betts, or Chris Taylor against left-handed pitchers.

The home run pitch from Luke Jackson, a 96 mph (154 km/h) fastball, crossed the plate while 4.12 feet (1.26 m) above the ground, making it very difficult to hit.

[103] In 2022, Bellinger had the lowest on-base percentage of all qualified hitters in the majors at .265, he also had a .210 batting average with 19 home runs and 68 RBIs[104] and struck out 150 times in 504 at-bats.

Working with Shawn Wooten and Damon Mashore, Bellinger incorporated a small hand and wrist movement into his "load phase", which prepared him to make strong contact with the ball.

[113] In response to concerns that he was "standing too tall and straight-legged" in the batter's box during the 2018 season, making it difficult to build momentum,[114] Bellinger made a number of other changes during the 2018–19 offseason, including adopting a more relaxed position at the plate and aiming to hit under breaking balls rather than over.