How the Dodgers’ Mookie Betts seeks to regain his All-Star form
PHOENIX — Since his first full season in 2015, Mookie Betts had been named an All-Star or received Most Valuable Player votes every year.
This was true until last year. In his sixth season with the Dodgers, Betts posted career lows in batting average (.258), on-base percentage (.326), and on-base-plus-slugging percentage (.732) while playing in 148 games at shortstop.
Betts, now 33, believes last year was an exception and he can return to his previous form.
“That’s what I expect,” Betts said after making his Cactus League debut on Sunday. “I haven’t felt like that in a long time. So the way I feel right now, I’m healthy, my swing is in a really good position. My head is in a really good position. I haven’t had any bad days in the cage. I haven’t had any bad days. [taking batting practice]. Usually by now I would have taken a thousand hits, trying to fix things, trying to get ready for the game, and now I’m just cruising along. I’m just cruising and I’m ready to go.
This spring, manager Dave Roberts offered an unequivocal vote of confidence.
“He’ll be in the MVP conversation this year,” Roberts said. “But again, I think for Mookie’s sake, his main goal is to help us win a championship. So, I think whatever comes of it, I think it will happen.”
A stomach problem that caused him to lose a lot of weight put Betts behind last spring, and he never really caught up. Over his first 103 games, he hit .231 with a .302 on-base percentage and .657 OPS. Enduring the longest cold spell of his career, Betts was forced to retool.
“It’s just about getting back to what I do best and getting better at that,” Betts said. “Instead of trying to solve problems, I was more able to focus on what I do best. And follow those patterns instead of trying to fix old habits.”
Betts says in a bizarre way that he enjoyed his season of introspection.
“I learned a lot about myself,” Betts said. “I learned a lot about how I operate. I was able to get into the right headspace and maintain the right headspace. And then once I was able to get into the right headspace and stay there, I haven’t looked, I haven’t done anything since I’ve been here other than just working and preparing.”
Things started to click at the end of the summer. Over his last 47 games, he hit .317 with a .376 on-base percentage and .892 OPS.
It wasn’t the stats that bothered Betts as much as his lack of production through the first four months.
“Once I was able to help the boys, everything was fine,” Betts said. But before that, I was really upset, not about the numbers per se, but rather about not being able to help. I’m not doing my job, I’m carrying my weight. Once I was able to do things, especially later in the season, I was able to just step back and say, “You did pretty well.” »
Part of the plan to maximize Betts’ abilities is to minimize his work in camp. Betts was the last healthy player to appear in a spring game, starting Sunday after playing in the first nine games. He was back in the lineup Monday, collecting his first hit with a single in three at-bats against the Colorado Rockies.
“It’s intentional,” Roberts said last week. “It’s load management. I wanted Mookie to start a little later, as far as not going into spring training and kind of using spring training to develop, being that it’s six weeks.”
