Why Mookie Betts spring training is unlike any

PHOENIX — Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts didn’t hesitate when requested about his expectations for Mookie Betts.

“He will be in the MVP conversation this year,” Roberts said this week. “But again, I think, speaking for Mookie, his main goal is to help us win a championship. So, I think whatever falls out from there, I think that will happen. I just want him to focus on just being healthy, helping us win, and then whatever happens outside of that, will happen.”

Coming off a season that obtained off on the improper foot with a abdomen virus that triggered him to lose 20 kilos and then noticed him set profession lows for batting average (.258), on-base proportion (.326) and OPS (.732), Betts is keen to transfer ahead. And with a more typical spring training timeline this 12 months — unlike the earlier two years when season-opening video games in South Korea and Japan sped up preparations — Betts can ease into his seventh season with the Dodgers.

“I haven’t had a regular spring maybe since I’ve been a Dodger,” said Betts, who also gained’t be collaborating in the World Baseball Classic as he did in 2023. “I just know that, being 33 now, I don’t have to hurry up and get here, and be ready to play from day one. So, I can just kind of embrace that. Not everybody’s blessed to have that, so being that I am one of the ones that’s blessed with that, I’ll see what I can make of it.”

One factor that’s not in query for Betts heading into the season: his shortstop play. Despite the practically unprecedented shift from the outfield to the infield, Betts performed 148 video games at short last season and was a Gold Glove Award finalist. The work he put in to study a new place raised questions about whether or not that was a root trigger of his hitting struggles, a level he granted some credence to late last season.

Betts did choose up the tempo late in the season, batting .317 and practically doubling his home run whole from 11 to 20 over his ultimate 47 video games. But he slumped in the NLCS and World Series, batting a mixed .136 and was ultimately dropped from second to third in the batting order for Game 5 against the Toronto Blue Jays, then fourth for Games 6 and 7.

Roberts said this week that he intends to slot Betts third in the batting order this season, with Shohei Ohtani still in the leadoff spot. (He added that Freddie Freeman, Will Smith and newcomer Kyle Tucker are all in play for the second and fourth spots in the order.)

“I like [Betts] in the number three in the sense that there’s an on-base component, there’s a ‘get hits’ component, there’s a drive-in-runs component, and you’re more of a Swiss Army knife in the lineup,” Roberts said. “So, I’m not beholden to it, but I like him in the three-hole right now.”

And as a consequence, Roberts feels bullish about Betts this season.

“I think he had a great offseason,” Roberts said. “He’s in a good headspace. The body’s good, and I think for me, it’s just getting back to being who he is. I just think that last year was an outlier offensive season, and I’m not too concerned about Mookie at all.”

Yoshinobu Yamamoto to start Cactus League opener

Roberts announced Thursday that World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto will start the Dodgers’ first spring training recreation Saturday against the Angels at Tempe Diablo Stadium. He didn’t share how many pitches or innings Yamamoto expects to throw, but he did state that it can possible be Yamamoto’s only Cactus League start before departing to play for Team Japan in the World Baseball Classic.

Roberts also revealed what gamers could start Saturday’s Cactus League opener.

“I would expect Will Smith to be in there,” Roberts said. “I expect [Teoscar Hernández] in there, and probably Andy [Pages]. I think that’s safe, and then we’ll go from there.”

Roberts plans to maintain other veteran gamers until next week.

“Guys like Mookie and Muncy, I’m going to start those guys a little bit later than this weekend and see where we go,” Roberts said. “Once they get going, then we’ll stagger and give them the ample time in-between. I’ve got to appreciate that it’s a longer spring. So, if they’re going to be here for six weeks, then I don’t want to kind of come in too hot, I want to pace them out a little bit.”

Freeman said Thursday that he is not going to play in the Dodgers’ first three spring training video games.

“I feel good, I’m ready to go, but we are going to slow-play it a little bit,” Freeman said. “I won’t play until I think Tuesday, so the fourth game, and then I’ll get going.”