As recently as Wednesday, Manager Dave Roberts said Betts would play shortstop when he returns from his hand injury. “Conversations” changed that plan.
LOS ANGELES — Mookie Betts will be going back where he probably belonged all along – right field.
Throughout his eight weeks on the injured list with a fractured left hand, the Dodgers asserted that Betts’ time as their everyday shortstop was not over. As recently as Wednesday, Dave Roberts said he expected Betts to play shortstop when he returns to the lineup on Monday.
Minds have been changed.
“We’ve had conversations, essentially daily, about what’s best for him, what’s best for the team,” Roberts said on Friday. “Right now, we’re gonna to kick Mookie out to right field.
“It was a conversation that went both ways. It wasn’t something that was difficult, or me pushing him there. It was like, what’s best?”
Betts said he “truly loved” the challenge of playing shortstop. The conversations about moving back to right field were “kind of a mutual thing,” he said, but “I mostly went to them.”
“I said, ‘Listen, I believe I can do it, but I want to win, man. I want to win,’” Betts said. “I don’t know if me right there (at shortstop) is the best solution.”
Betts said he recognized that Miguel Rojas and Nick Ahmed were more experienced, better defensive options at shortstop.
“You got to be real with yourself, the team, and do what’s best. That’s what I’ve preached from the beginning,” Betts said. “All I want to do is win. I just feel like Miggy and Nick Ahmed being there is – that’s winning baseball.
“I believe in my abilities and I do believe that I can go play shortstop at the big-league level. But no matter which way you cut it, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to be Miggy Rojas or Nick Ahmed (defensively). Especially now in my career. Maybe if I started earlier. I think those guys holding it down is the best option for the Dodgers today.”
Betts holding down right field always looked like a component to the Dodgers putting their best lineup on the field – and an inevitability in the postseason.
“I think that was a very likely scenario,” Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes acknowledged Friday.
With their division lead down to 2½ games entering Friday, moving Betts now made sense, Gomes said.
“I think ultimately it was, hey, this is what we think is the most likely scenario so we were all, let’s do it now and put ourselves in the best position possible,” Gomes said.
For a former MVP and six-time Gold Glove winner, Betts has certainly not been handled with kid gloves by the Dodgers this season. He was already making a move from right field to second base when the Dodgers decided Gavin Lux couldn’t be trusted at shortstop. Betts made the move to a position he hadn’t played regularly since high school with just a couple of weeks of spring training to prepare.
With Lux playing well at second base, that wasn’t an option this time around and Betts will move all the way back out to right field – a position he hasn’t played at all this year.
“I don’t care. I just want to win, bro. I genuinely don’t care,” Betts said when asked if he considered using his credentials as leverage to complain. “I could’ve said that but that would’ve been not very smart. That wouldn’t have been a very smart thing. (It would have been) a very selfish thing. That’s not who I am. I’ve preached this from the very beginning, and I always will.”
Moving Betts back to right field makes sense offensively as well as defensively. Teoscar Hernandez hit .295 with 13 home runs and a .909 OPS in his 59 games in right field this season. But everyone else the Dodgers played there – primarily Jason Heyward against right-handed pitching and also Andy Pages – contributed a .208 average and .644 OPS.
With Betts in right field, Hernandez will stay in left field full time with some combination of Pages and Tommy Edman (when he comes off the IL) likely to handle center field.
“I would say the comfort level, where we feel best for Mookie, and for our ballclub, kind of was the driver. And then the other pieces sort of fall in line,” Roberts said.
Roberts said the decision to keep Shohei Ohtani in the leadoff spot and move Betts to second in the order hasn’t changed despite Betts’ stated preference for batting leadoff.
On Wednesday, Betts said again that there is a “huge difference” for him batting leadoff or second and “whatever Shohei says goes and after that we kind of fall in line.”
Roberts said the decision to leave Ohtani in the leadoff spot was not driven by Ohtani.
“Absolutely not,” Roberts said. “Shohei would hit anywhere. I know that Mookie said that. But Shohei has said the same thing that Mookie said, ‘Wherever you want me to hit, I hit.’
“I think for me, the game is telling us who we have on our roster. As far as Shohei and Freddie (Freeman), it’s telling me that Shohei should lead off and you need to split those lefties up so I didn’t honestly have to have a conversation with Shohei. I talked to Mookie about the lineup, and he completely agreed.”
Right-hander Walker Buehler was back with the Dodgers on Friday after having the best start of his second rehab assignment Thursday for Triple-A Oklahoma City. Buehler walked the first batter he faced then retired 13 in a row and 15 of 17, pitching into the sixth inning. He gave up just one hit (a solo home run).
The expectation now is that Buehler will come off the IL and rejoin the Dodgers’ starting rotation during their four-game series in Milwaukee beginning Monday.
“The performance, the stuff, all that was lined up,” Roberts said. “So to imagine him making a start for us in Milwaukee seems feasible.”
Edman and third baseman Max Muncy are expected to start rehab assignments with OKC on Saturday.
Dusty Baker was inducted into the Legends of Dodger Baseball before Friday’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, honoring his eight seasons with the team, which included three National League pennants and the 1981 World Series title.
The Legends distinction recognizes contributors to the franchise’s longtime success. Baker, who grew up in Riverside, is the eighth inductee, joining Don Newcombe, Steve Garvey and Fernando Valenzuela (2019 inductees); Maury Wills and Kirk Gibson (2022); and Manny Mota and Orel Hershiser (2023).
One of the most popular Dodgers of his era, Baker thrived during his time with the team (1976-83), winning two Silver Slugger Awards and a Gold Glove Award. During his Dodgers tenure, Baker ranked fourth among all National League outfielders over that span with 144 home runs, fifth with 586 RBIs and sixth with 1,144 hits. He was named to two National League All-Star teams, the first one coming during their 1981 World Series season.
Pirates (RHP Paul Skenes, 6-1, 1.99 ERA) at Dodgers (RHP River Ryan, 1-0, 1.72 ERA), Saturday, 6:10 p.m., SportsNet LA, 570 AM
