Dodgers Make Massive Change With Less Than 2 Weeks Until Opening Day in Korea
The Los Angeles Dodgers' season opens in less than two weeks on March 20 in Korea against the San Diego Padres. That means, Mookie Betts has about 12 days to make his second position change of the spring.
On Friday, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts made the shocking announcement that the team is moving Gavin Lux off shortstop. Betts will be taking over the shortstop duties, with Lux moving back to second base, the position he's played a majority of his MLB career.
Roberts called the move, "permanent, for now,"
This news comes after Roberts and the Dodgers completely changed course on Lux after an offseason of saying he was going to be the team's shortstop.
On Wednesday, after another rough defensive performance from Lux at shortstop, Roberts was noncommittal about him being the team's Opening Day shortstop.
Two days later, Lux has officially been moved off the spot.
Roberts said all the involved parties had a discussion on Thursday regarding the move. That obviously includes Betts, who has only logged 98 innings at shortstop across his 10-year MLB career.
However, Roberts said the team wanted to keep Lux's bat in the lineup, and moving him back to second base — a position he played well in 2022 — made the most sense.
That, however, forces Betts to move off of second base, which is a position he was very excited to play full-time this season for the first time in his career.
Roberts added that Betts could still see some second base against left-handed pitching if Lux sits, but also made it clear that this is not a platoon situation, and Lux will still see his fair share of time against left-handed pitching.
For Lux, this is a tough blow as he's been looking forward to being the Dodgers' shortstop since last spring.
He suffered a torn ACL last spring training which sidelined him for the whole year, but he entered this spring as the team's shortstop.
Unfortunately, he's had trouble fielding the position through Cactus League play, and the Dodgers decided it was time to move him off the spot to relieve some of the pressure that came with playing shortstop.
So, Lux is going back to second base, with Betts moving over to shortstop and trying to learn a new full-time position with 12 days to go until the season opener.
