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.
Roberts said during spring training that the position change would be “permanent, for now” – though both he and Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes acknowledged Friday that Betts was likely headed back to the outfield during the postseason regardless. Betts has been out since June 16 with a fractured hand.
There are other realities at play right now for these Dodgers, notably, a division race that has tightened quickly over the past month. The San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks woke up Friday sitting 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 games behind the Dodgers, respectively, the closest the NL West has been since April 25.
“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?”
When healthy, Betts powered the Dodgers to the best shortstop production in the sport, outpacing the likes of Kansas City’s Bobby Witt Jr. and Baltimore’s Gunnar Henderson in terms of FanGraphs WAR at the position at the time when he broke his hand. Much of that centered on Betts’ bat, rather than his glove, as Betts’ advanced defensive metrics were mixed, at best.
Mookie Betts said he has embraced and enjoyed the challenge of playing shortstop, but called the decision to move back to right field “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 been vocal about appreciating “the challenge” of learning to be an everyday major-league shortstop on the fly. It was a preposterous ask but one that elicited rave reviews throughout the organization for the strides Betts made in a short time. The excitement about the new position also included some open frustration from Betts about the growing pains; “The challenge is fun and I embrace it,” Betts said Friday. “But it does keep you up at night.”
Gomes said the question of where Betts would return was among the “continual conversations” the organization has had the past few weeks as the superstar ramped up for a potential return. The club acknowledged the delicate nature of forcing another position change on their superstar, even as the player, manager and front office presented the move Friday as a united decision.
For one, the Dodgers saw Miguel Rojas perform well as the everyday shortstop in Betts’ stead (though concerns about Rojas’ ability to physically hold up while playing every day held true, with Rojas landing on the injured list with a flexor strain).
In weeks around the deadline, the Dodgers added three players (Nick Ahmed, Tommy Edman and Amed Rosario) with experience at shortstop. Gavin Lux has performed of late, making second base — where Betts spent much of the winter thinking he’d play — a non-starter.
And the Dodgers have continued to get unsteady production from their outfield. Hitters not named Teoscar Hernández entered Friday having combined to hit .205/.287/.339 (an 80 wRC+) with 0.1 FanGraphs WAR. Adding Betts (along with Edman, who is expected to play center field on his rehab assignment), would be a much-needed boost.
This was all the case on Tuesday, as well. But, after a conversation with the Dodgers’ brass on Thursday night, the move was made.
“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.”
Both Gomes and Roberts stood by the decision to move Betts to shortstop in the first place. Roberts said it was the best solution available after Lux showed up to spring training and had issues throwing accurately from shortstop. The team didn’t feel Rojas could hold up physically. Betts “took the challenge on and, once again, it’s what the team needed,” Gomes said, lauding the results.
But the reality remains that Betts likely would have moved out to the outfield in the postseason, anyway, something Roberts acknowledged was a pivot point even when the Dodgers first made the move.
“Ultimately, I think we’re getting to the place where I think many of us felt we were gonna get to,” Roberts said.
Betts has six Gold Gloves as an outfielder. He has been honest about preferring to play the infield but saw no need to push back against a return to 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 equally as open about his preference to hit in the leadoff spot. That, too, will change after Roberts confirmed the plan is still for Betts to hit second behind Shohei Ohtani, who has hit .290/.403/.661 in the leadoff role since Betts’ injury.
The 31-year-old Betts, who has a career .913 OPS from the leadoff spot, acknowledged that there will have to be an adjustment to a different spot in the lineup, telling reporters this week that “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’ return on Monday in Milwaukee will continue a year in which the Dodgers have asked him to move around. First, it was the expected move from right field to second base. Then, just weeks before Opening Day, it was the unprecedented move to shortstop. Now, it’s a move back to right field, and back to the second spot in the batting order for the first time in years.
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)
