Dodgers superstar finds another level after shortstop move: 'The MVP version of Mookie Betts'

WASHINGTON — The subject was Shohei Ohtani, as it so often is around the Los Angeles Dodgers these days, and for once, Mookie Betts was left to ponder what he can’t contribute to the team.

Betts takes a back seat to few, if any, in Major League Baseball, but perched atop a batting order that starts with three former MVPs, comparison can be the thief of joy.

“I can’t do 90% of the things he can do,” Betts mused about the two-way superstar reduced to the game’s most dominant slugger this season. “I don’t even try. I just gotta be Mookie.

“I gotta be the best Mookie Betts I can be. I can’t grow six inches and gain 50 pounds.”

Literally, no.

Figuratively? No one’s been bigger for the Dodgers this season.

Betts, 31, has always cast a longer shadow in this game than his 5-9, 180-pound frame might suggest, and his likely Hall of Fame career is unfolding in chapters. The first installments were authored in Boston, where he was 2018 American League MVP and won the World Series that year with the Red Sox.

The next episode, after a trade to L.A. and his signing of a 12-year, $365 million contract extension, might be more impressive.

Newer stars – Ohtani, say – will always come around and command currency. Enduring greatness is eventually rewarded, as Betts’ 10 consecutive seasons with an OPS of at least .800 surely will.

But on a team that won its only World Series title in a bubble and has been snakebit by early playoff exits in the face of great expectations since, Betts’ worth can be taken for granted.

This spring, though, Betts has shown how a fearless and selfless mentality and endless desire to learn might be the ultimate value.

When the Dodgers, midway through spring training, requested he play shortstop for the first time at the big league level, it was an ask many superstars might have quietly declined. Betts, after all, won six Gold Gloves as an outfielder was already helping the Dodgers out by filling in at second base.

But shortstop? The most demanding position on the field, one that might compromise an elite hitter’s offensive ability, particularly when his experience was limited to 13 games in low-A ball more than a decade ago?

Well, what’s happened in the season’s first month has been remarkable.

Betts is not only handling the position capably, he’s also leading the major leagues in batting average, on-base percentage and OPS and enjoyed significant bumps in several peripheral categories.

All while bailing the Dodgers out of a tight spot in February, when projected starter Gavin Lux’s bounceback from knee surgery didn’t go as smoothly as the club hoped – and Betts filled the gap.

“I feel like we’re seeing the MVP version of Mookie Betts,” says Dodgers closer Evan Phillips. “And I feel like this is who he can be for us, hopefully throughout the whole year.”

'True with his emotions'

Betts was musing the other day to his wife, Brianna, that he can’t believe it’s already his fifth year with the Dodgers.

Yet his L.A. story quietly has levels to it. And this year, he’s gone from teacher to student.

Sure, Betts’ elite athleticism gave the Dodgers little pause to make the switch to shortstop. But playing the position at the highest level is an entirely different proposition.

And how Betts has gone about mastering the task taught the Dodgers a few things about their leadoff hitter, too.

“I feel proud and happy and grateful that I have the opportunity to work with him,” says infielder Miguel Rojas, like Betts an 11-year major league veteran who bumps him to second base when opponents start a left-handed pitcher. “What I get from him is he’s really true with his emotions and the things he’s feeling. He’s not afraid to show his lack of (mastery).

“He understands what he does well and what he needs to work on. What amazes me the most is the work ethic and the desire of getting better every single day. He’s been doing it for so long that you kind of get used to the numbers he puts up on the field.”

Ah, yes, those numbers. After notching seven hits in 14 at-bats during the Dodgers’ three-game sweep at Washington, Betts is batting .374 with a .477 OBP and 1.113 OPS, leading all the land; his six homers equal Ohtani’s just outside the top 10.

Meanwhile, his strikeout rate has dipped to 11.3%, lowest since 2017 and way down from 15.4% and 16.3% the past two years. And thanks in no small part to his challenging defensive position, Betts' 2.3 WAR, as measured by Baseball-Reference, leads the major leagues.

While this is certainly sustainability season, with wondering we’re seeing will be real for the entire year, Dodgers observers believe Betts – NL MVP runner-up one year ago - might have unlocked another level.

And while his work ethic was already turned up, the extra homework learning a new position might have simply heightened all his senses.

“I’ve noticed a different level of intent on a day-to-day basis with Mookie,” says Phillips, who joined the Dodgers in 2021. “I feel like the transition to shortstop, all the extra work he’s doing each day fielding ground balls, talking to Miguel Rojas about playing the position at a major league level – to see his focus level on a day to day, I think it’s helping him in all parts of his game.”

As Phillips puts it, “all our superstars have very meticulous routines.” There’s Betts with his significant cage work, extra grounders at short or weight room work that teammates say is the stuff of legend. This year, it’s Ohtani hitting the ball even harder as Tommy John surgery relegates him to one side of the ball. And then first baseman Freddie Freeman’s pregame work, fielding from his knees with infield coach Dino Ebel, that looks just as it did years ago with Ron Washington in Atlanta.

During batting practice this week, Freeman took grounders at short, as a lark, tossing in a jump throw for good measure. But Freeman eventually takes a knee and studies Betts, who is business time from the get-go, be it doing his infield work before his cage round or analyzing the position's finest points with Rojas.

“I take great pride in work,” says Betts. “Learning a new position is work. But it’s fun.

“It’s been tough but it’s been fun. When you have a resource like (Rojas), it makes things a little bit easier. He’s made the process tough but fun, somehow.”

The results on that side of the ball? Good enough, certainly. Betts has shown as an average defender – he’s -1 in Statcast’s Outs Above Average metric, a +3 in FanGraphs’ defensive runs saved – with four errors.

Yet the athleticism he brought to right field also plays well on the dirt, up the middle.

“It feels like there hasn’t been an adjustment period,” says Dodgers ace Tyler Glasnow, acquired from Tampa Bay in the winter. “The only time I saw him kind of not be awesome was a little bit in spring when he just started.

“I know when I pitch, I’m very confident with him there. His range and everything he can do there is awesome. He’s been carrying himself well, he’s confident.”

Confidence game

While they are separated by hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, the Rays and Dodgers share a plug-and-play ethos, a mentality that has hatched super utilitymen like Kiké Hernandez and Chris Taylor in L.A., or Isaac Paredes and Ben Zobrist in Tampa Bay.

But none of those guys has a $365 million contract, nor a Cooperstown plaque in its design phase.

“I know some people on teams I haven’t played on that have been approached with the same thing and been like, ‘No, I can’t do that,’” says Glasnow. “It speaks to the psyche of the player: ‘I’m confident enough that I can go play wherever.’ And able to withstand the growing pains.

“Mookie has been good ever since I’ve played against him. The only time I ever saw him be not good was low-A. For like the first month. And then he was the best player ever after that.”

That was in 2012, when Glasnow and Betts were in the New York-Penn League, on behalf of the Pirates and Red Sox, respectively. Betts hit zero home runs in 71 games as a 19-year-old. Since then, he’s accrued 258 home runs, a .904 career OPS and seven All-Star nods, with the elevator only going up.

Yet he’s not above pausing at one floor, seeing what his team needs and taking everyone else along for the ride.

“It says two things,” says center fielder James Outman. “One, he’s incredibly athletic to be able to do that. And two, it takes a really good teammate to change positions halfway through spring training and accept that challenge for the betterment of the team.”

Says Rojas: “He’s so mentally tough that he can do that without anything else being affected. You don’t find players like that often.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mookie Betts is Dodgers' most valuable player with shortstop move