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What was a trying season for Dodgers’ Mookie Betts turned around just in time

PHILADELPHIA – Mookie Betts had doubts.

After all, a year ago, he had started the season as the Dodgers’ shortstop but he didn’t finish the season there. He moved back to right field after returning from a broken hand in August.

“(At) the start of the (2025) season I wasn’t sure I would end the season there. I thought there may have to be adjustment at some point because from lack of trust or whatever,” Betts said as the postseason started last week. “I just didn’t know. I didn’t know.

“I’m just proud of myself for making it all the way through the year and actually achieving a goal that I kind of set out to do, and that’s being a major league shortstop, and say I did it and I’m good at it.”

He is. Though he didn’t often appear in highlights packages, he made all the plays a major-league shortstop is supposed to make – so much so that he led everyone at the position with 17 Defensive Runs Saved. He made just seven errors in 148 games – 19 shortstops made more.

Betts applied his elite-level work ethic to learning the position, putting in daily off-season work with Dodgers coach Chris Woodward, good friend Ryan Goins (Angels bench coach), and former Gold Glove shortstop Troy Tulowitzki. But Betts knew he had become a real shortstop when “I didn’t have to think about it.”

“I could just go out there and play,” Betts said. “Now when I go out and play shortstop, it’s like I’m going out to right field. I don’t even think about it. My training is good. I believe in myself. I believe in what I can do. And now it’s just like – go have fun. When the ball comes, have fun.

“I don’t know when it happened, but there was just a point — I think it was probably after three or four errors, probably after three or four errors. I was making errors I never made before. I have never been in these situations. So once I got into the situation and understood how to do what I did wrong and understand how to do it (correctly) – just have fun.”

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts saw the same change in Betts.

“There was a play — I don’t recall where it was at — but a play going to his backhand that he made this play, pretty spectacular play, where, for me, it was just being an athlete playing shortstop and not just kind of the mechanical part of it,” Roberts said, referencing a play against the Cincinnati Reds in late August.

“He just looked like a natural shortstop right there. I don’t remember the backhand play, but then he’s been as good as I could have ever expected playing that position.”

But there were other doubts. For the first time in his big-league career, there were doubts about Betts’ offense.

Many questioned whether the mental and physical effort Betts was putting into learning how to play shortstop was taking away from his offense.

Betts dismissed that theory and now admits what the real problem probably was. The virus that hit him near the end of spring training lingered longer than anyone expected, causing Betts to lose 20 pounds from a frame that is charitably listed at 5-foot-10, 180 pounds.

Once he shed the virus, Betts gained the weight back soon enough. But the loss of strength lasted much longer and led to swing changes that dragged Betts into the worst offensive slump of his career.

That was an even newer experience for Betts than playing shortstop. He had never had to deal with failure over such a sustained period and it led to frustration. After a game on August 8, he declared his season over, accepting that the back of his baseball card would always reflect 2025 as “not a great season.”

And then it was – at least for two months.

Freed from trying to save his season – and buoyed by a meeting with friend, hitting advisor and personal hype man J.D. Martinez – Betts started hitting like himself again. From that August night through the end of the season, he hit .309 with an .874 OPS, nine home runs and 34 RBI in 45 games. He has started the postseason 6 for 14 with a four-hit game (including three doubles) in the closeout game of the Wild Card Series.

“It’s just hard to gain your weight and sustain strength in the middle of a season, when you’ve been traveling and doing all these things,” Betts said. “I think I finally got all that back and was able to fix a couple of mechanics and didn’t really have to try and add on power anymore. I could just swing and let it do its thing.”

When reminded of his “my season is kind of over” declaration in August, Betts said he “just accepted failing” and with that his mindset changed.

“My thought process on failing changed,” he said. “Instead of looking at the things as failures, I looked at it as, OK, well, I know that’s not it. Now I can move to the next thing. I know that’s not it, move to the next thing, instead of sulking in — well, I tried this and it failed, now I don’t know where to go. I just used it as positive and things eventually turned.

“But it’s just one of those things where you’ve just gotta keep going, man. I went through arguably one of the worst years of my career. But I think it really made me mentally tough. So now there’s just a different level of focus. And it’s not really on myself; it’s more on winning the game.”

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