As Major League Baseball winds down from All-Star festivities, there is a familiar face missing from the notable events.
That player is the Los Angeles Dodgers’ $365 million star, Mookie Betts. Betts is among other star players, such as the New York Mets’ Juan Soto and the Chicago Cubs’ Seiya Suzuki, who are not joining the Midsummer Classic festivities. However, for Suzuki and Soto, their reason for not being invited to the ASG is not performance-related.
For Betts, he is having one of the worst offensive seasons of his illustrious career.
Why Is Betts Struggling So Much at the Plate?
Betts is an eight-time All-Star and has made eight consecutive All-Star appearances dating back to 2016 (2020 excluded), four appearances with the Boston Red Sox, and then four with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Betts won the MVP in 2018 and has five top-5 MVP finishes. He’s also won seven Silver Slugger awards, so it comes as a surprise to everyone that he’s hitting a career low .244, which is very unlike the 32-year-old Betts, who is usually batting high .290s or low .300s.
His OPS is also below .700 through 89 games this season. Now, there is certainly still time for Betts to turn it around this season, but will he? Or will Dodgers manager Dave Roberts be forced to make a tough decision and maybe move him out of his normal second position in the batting order?
Betts’ Move to Shortstop
One drastic difference this season that might contribute to Betts’ struggles at the dish is his positional move from right field to shortstop full-time. This could potentially cause Betts to be solely focused on his middle infield duty at shortstop, and there might be a lingering effect on his at-bats. However, the rebuttal to that argument is that Betts was the Los Angeles Dodgers’ primary shortstop for a large number of games last season before eventually moving back to the outfield for the Dodgers’ playoff run due to his poor defense at short. While he’s a much better defender this season, last year, when he played short, he still performed fine at the plate. Betts hit .289 last season with an OPS of .863, both well above average statistics.
Bettsâ One of Several Dodgers Struggling Headed Into the All-Star Break
Although Betts is the most notable Los Angeles Dodger who is struggling, that is because he hasn’t gotten going at any point this season. But other Dodger star players are also struggling as of late, like Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernández. Hernández dealt with an elbow injury that kept him out of the lineup for a few weeks in June, but he has not looked the same, and Freeman recently went through the longest stretch of his career without an extra-base hit.
The Dodgers have aspirations of repeating as World Series Champions, and yes, the bullpen has been bad, and other players like Michael Conforto are holding the offense back. However, if the Dodgers’ stars like Betts, Freeman, and Hernández don’t turn it around on the offensive side, there will continue to not be a repeat champion in baseball.
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