LOS ANGELES — In looking to get through the worst offensive stretch of his career, Mookie Betts went home. Those who know the Los Angeles Dodgers star understand that more work is the former Most Valuable Player’s usual remedy to even perceived struggles.
This is the same man who swung last October until his hands were raw, then continued swinging. Doing so in a facility near his home in Nashville, Tenn., rather than in the bowels of Dodger Stadium at least provided a different scene to the monotonous work that has accompanied what has dragged on long enough to be considered more than just a massive slump.
So Betts continued to swing at a facility in Nashville. The impetus was going home and seeing family. The fresh location likely didn’t hurt, to get away from a miserable start that has lasted months. When Betts woke up Friday to start the second half of the season, he had a .696 OPS, the worst mark of his career. His frustrations come from an obvious place: The Dodgers need Betts to get going.
This marked the first time since Betts’ first full season in 2015 that he got to the All-Star break healthy and did not secure an invitation to the game itself. For as much as his defense has been a pleasant surprise in his unprecedented move to shortstop at 32 years old, his bat has plummeted. For months, Betts and the Dodgers have denied a correlation between the two.
Betts was less conclusive Friday. “I don’t know,” he said. It’s a moot point, with the Dodgers unlikely to move Betts off the position anytime soon.
His struggles continued Friday against the Milwaukee Brewers, as he went hitless in four at-bats. He chased badly at a Quinn Priester cutter well off the plate to end his first at-bat. He chased again in his next at-bat, hitting a breaking ball into the dirt for an out. When the Dodgers got just their second runner in scoring position against Priester, Betts worked a full count before waving at a cutter above the zone.
The Dodgers’ 2-0 loss came to an end with Betts at the plate, swinging at a knuckle curve below the zone and grounding out softly to short. A solution doesn’t come overnight.
“You get so lost in it,” Betts said. “Once you go down a rabbit hole — not a rabbit hole like I’m chasing something — but once you get down so far, up is so high that you just don’t even care about it anymore. Obviously, yes, I do want to play better. But where I was and where I am now, it’s so night and day different.”
Fixing Betts’ bat isn’t as simple as sliding him back to right field, where he became one of the best players in the sport. Same for second base, which was Betts’ original infield landing spot when the Dodgers first broached moving him to the infield full-time in 2024. It also wasn’t as simple as Betts’ regaining the 20 pounds he lost due to a gnarly stomach virus he contracted shortly before Opening Day. He regained his weight and then some within weeks. His bat still hasn’t recovered.
“I’ve never done this,” Betts said after hitting a round of batting practice on the field. More rounds awaited him in the batting cage. “It’s all new. I’ve never been this bad for this long.”
Since the start of June, Mookie Betts has a .627 OPS with just 11 extra-base hits. “It’s very difficult,” he said. (Neville E. Guard / Imagn Images)
Betts is striking out less often than ever. But that contact has not translated like Betts is used to. His power numbers are down significantly. His average had plummeted to .244 when he boarded his flight to Nashville. Perhaps seeking results, he’s chasing out of the strike zone more than at any point in his career. The Dodgers wanted Betts to play shortstop because his bat could make the game’s most valuable infield position sing. Instead, Betts has produced at a below-league-average rate by wRC+ (96).
Managing a swing is a seemingly impossible task. But Betts’ frame and the mechanics of his swing make the maintenance even more difficult. Given his size, he relies more on each part of his swing working in concert to make everything click. When he’s right, few players can adapt better to a pitch mid-flight, with his hands helping the barrel of his bat square up baseballs like few others.
Part of Betts’ issues this season have been consistent, said Dodgers hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc. Few know Betts’ swing better. This season, the shortstop has struggled to pin down a moving target with how his hands load into his swing. As a result, all of the minuscule parts that allow his swing to function have been a little off, as well. In one clip of his work in Nashville this week, Betts swung a bat with what appeared to be a medicine ball resting between his elbows. The goal was to keep the ball pinned between his elbows as he loaded and finished the swing.
“When that’s right, he’s one of the top hitters in the sport,” Van Scoyoc said. “He’s one thought, one cue, one drill from being a top hitter in the sport.”
“He hasn’t really gotten ahead by getting hot yet,” Roberts said before the All-Star break. “But it’s coming.”
Things haven’t trended up. Since the start of June, Betts has a .627 OPS with just 11 extra-base hits. This, Betts said, is new. He’s on his second consecutive month with an OPS below .700 — before this, he’d had only five such months in his career. His overall line has gone down far enough that Betts doesn’t even spend time processing what getting out of this looks like. This is a bat the Dodgers have largely survived without, racing to the National League’s best record even with Betts slumping. But as last October showed, Betts’ production is as important as anyone’s in this lineup.
The Dodgers have remained steadfast with Betts, keeping him in the second spot in the order throughout. Save for one “mental day” that manager Dave Roberts gave Betts this month and a series he missed with a fractured pinkie toe, Betts has remained the everyday shortstop.
That continued Friday, as Betts again ran through a series of swings trying to find something. As of Friday afternoon, Betts said, his swing feels good. As he said it, he immediately cautioned: He has felt good a lot this year. It hasn’t made the actual swing any better.
So, Betts has kept swinging. If there’s one thing they can’t be critical of, it’s Betts’ work.
“It’s very difficult,” Betts said. “I haven’t figured it out. So, obviously, it’s super difficult. But I’ll tell you one thing: I definitely love the process of it. I definitely love the process of trying to figure out who I am, where I’m at, the work. I haven’t found it, and it sucks. Going out there every night, going 0-for-4, that part of the day truly sucks. But you see it. All day, I’m out here working and hitting, and I love it. I love that. It’s the best part.”
(Top photo: Harry How / Getty Images)
