LOS ANGELES — “Permanent, for now” has reached its end date.
Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shifted course Friday afternoon and said that Mookie Betts will make his return to the Dodgers on Monday in right field, not at shortstop. This comes just three days after Roberts said the plan would be for Betts to return at shortstop, the position the Dodgers slid him to on short notice ahead of Opening Day — despite Betts not playing the position regularly since high school.
While Roberts stated during spring training that the switch would be “permanent, for now,” Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes and Roberts agreed on Friday that Betts would most likely return to the outfield come playoff play. Betts has not been able to play since June 16 due to a hand fracture.
For these Dodgers, there are other realities at work right now, most notably a division race that has been increasingly competitive in the last month. The NL West has not been this tight since April 25 when the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks awoke on Friday, respectively, 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 games behind the Dodgers.
“We’re in a pennant race right now,” Roberts said “We have a whatever game lead and so you (ask), what’s best for the ballclub?”
Before breaking his hand, Betts led the Dodgers to the finest shortstop productivity in baseball, surpassing players like Bobby Witt Jr. of Kansas City and Gunnar Henderson of Baltimore in terms of FanGraphs WAR at the position. Given that Betts’ advanced defensive stats were, at best, mediocre, a lot of the focus was on his bat rather than his glove.
Although he has accepted and relished the challenge of playing shortstop, Mookie Betts referred to his choice to return to right field as “mostly mutual.”
“At some point you have to be real with yourself,” he said, and that best alignment back in the OF.
“I just want to win.”
— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) August 9, 2024
Betts has made no secret of his appreciation for “the challenge” of quickly becoming an everyday major-league shortstop. Although it was an absurd request, Betts’ quick progress garnered positive feedback from everyone in the organization. Betts expressed open dissatisfaction about the growing pains along with his delight about the new role on Friday, saying, “The challenge is wonderful and I embrace it.” “However, it keeps you up at night.”
Gomes stated that as the superstar prepared for a possible comeback, the team has been having “continual conversations” about where Betts would make his comeback. Even though the player, manager, and front office announced the transfer on Friday as a team effort, the club recognized the risk involved in putting its superstar through yet another position shift.
For starters, the Dodgers witnessed Miguel Rojas step in for Betts and play well as the starting shortstop (though worries about Rojas’ physical durability held true, as Rojas sustained a flexor strain and was placed on the injured list).
The Dodgers gained three players with shortstop experience in the weeks leading up to the deadline: Nick Ahmed, Tommy Edman, and Amed Rosario. Given his recent play, Gavin Lux is now a non-starter at second base, where Betts believed he would play for the majority of the winter.
Additionally, the Dodgers’ outfield has continued to produce inconsistently. Players who were not Teoscar Hernández had a collective batting line of.205/.287/.339 (an 80 wRC+) with 0.1 FanGraphs WAR going into Friday. Betts would be a much-needed addition, as would Edman, who is anticipated to play center field during his rehab assignment.
All of this also applied on Tuesday. However, the decision was reached on Thursday night following a discussion with the Dodgers’ management.
“I think it was just kind of a mutual thing,” Betts said. “But I would say I mostly went to them. I said, ‘Listen, I believe I can do it, but I want to win, man.’ I want to win. I don’t know if me right there (at shortstop) is the best solution.”
“It wasn’t something that was difficult, or me pushing him there,” Roberts said Friday. “It was like, what’s best (for the team). … This is kind of essentially reading the room. Me and him talking.”
Gomes and Roberts agreed that Betts should have been moved to shortstop in the first place. Roberts stated that Lux had trouble throwing accurately from shortstop when he arrived at spring training, so this was the best option available. The group did not think Rojas could compete on a physical level. Gomes praised the outcome and added that Betts “took the task on and, once again, that is what the squad needed.”
However, it is still true that Betts probably would have shifted to the outfield in the postseason—a fact that Roberts recognized was crucial even back when the Dodgers initially made the change.
“Ultimately, I think we’re getting to the place where I think many of us felt we were gonna get to,” Roberts said.
As an outfielder, Betts has won six Gold Gloves. Although he has been open about his preference to play in the infield, he did not see the need to oppose a move back into the outfield.
“I just want to win, bro,” Betts said. “I genuinely don’t care. I could’ve said that but that would’ve been not very smart. That wouldn’t have been a very smart thing, a very selfish thing.
“The challenge of going out there and working — you see how much I love to work. I’m out there hours every day. I love that part. I really love that part. But also you got to be real with yourself, the team, and do what’s best.”
Betts has been just as transparent about his desire to bat first. Roberts stated that Betts will still bat second after Shohei Ohtani, who has hit.290/.403/.661 in the leadoff spot since Betts’ injury, so that will also alter.The 31-year-old Betts, whose leadoff average for his career is.913, admitted this week to reporters that he will need to adjust to a new position in the lineup. “whatever Shohei says goes, and after that we kind of fall in line.”
Roberts denied that Ohtani requested to hit in the leadoff spot. “Shohei has said the same thing that Mookie said,” the manager said. “Wherever you want me to hit, I hit.” Betts hasn’t hit second regularly since 2019 when he batted behind Andrew Benintendi with the Boston Red Sox.
Betts has been asked to move around by the Dodgers this season, and on Monday in Milwaukee, he will make his comeback. It started with the anticipated transition from right field to second base. Then came the historic change to shortstop a few weeks before Opening Day. For the first time in years, he is now returning to right field and the second position in the batting order.
At least publicly. Betts is going along with it.
“There’s only one Mookie,” Betts said. “I don’t care. I want to win. Keep that first and foremost, and the rest just is what it is.”
(Photo of Mookie Betts: Jayne Kamin-Oncea / USA Today)
