Dodgers Have No Plans to Move Mookie Betts Off Shortstop Amid Offensive Struggles

Mookie Betts is on pace to do something he has not done in an MLB regular season since 2017.

After appearing at more than one position in the field every year from 2018-24 (and before that, from 2014-16), Betts has spent every one of his 754.1 innings in the field at shortstop. Betts isn't a versatile utility player any more. He's the Dodgers' entrenched shortstop.

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Betts spent time at shortstop, second base, and right field each of the last two years. He surrendered the shortstop position last year only after recovering from a hand fracture that cost him nearly two months out of the middle of the season.

Miguel Rojas and Tommy Edman finished out last season as the Dodgers' shortstops. Both returned this season, but Betts started 88 of the Dodgers' first 97 games before the All-Star break at shortstop.

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Betts has been arguably more valuable with his glove than his bat this season. He's slashing .244/.315/.381, on pace for career lows in batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage, respectively.

The 2018 American League Most Valuable Player lost 20 pounds in the middle of spring training as a result of an illness. He said in May that he formed bad habits while trying to compensate for the sudden weight loss. Those bad habits — more than his first full season at a new position — are responsible for his poor batting numbers in 2025.

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According to Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic, the Dodgers have no plans to move Mookie Betts off the shortstop position.

“I just can’t see that you go out there and stick him in right field tonight and he’s going to throw out two hits or three hits, or he goes to second base and he’s going to go on a heater,” manager Dave Roberts said. “That’s hard for me to kind of imagine. But it’s a fair ask. I just don’t see that as the case.”

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Although Betts' illness and the ensuing bad habits formed early in the season, he's done some of his worst hitting recently. In his last 30 games, Betts has two home runs, 12 RBIs, and a .185 batting average.

Some of that is likely a result of bad luck; Betts' batting average on balls in play during the 30-game streak is an abysmal .198. Even still, Betts' expected batting average (.213) and OBP (.256) during his 30-game slide, according to Statcast, are the worst among Dodger regulars.

Betts' defensive play leaves little reason to complain. More remarkable than his continued presence at shortstop amid his slump at the plate has been his continued presence as the number-2 hitter in the Dodgers' lineup.

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