Dodgers shortstop, with career lows across the board offensively on the season, sat Saturday amid 0-for-12 and 3-for-28 slumps.
Eric Stephen is the managing editor of True Blue LA, where he’s covered the Dodgers since 2009, and the co-host of the Three-Inning Save podcast. He’s on Bluesky at @ericstephen.bsky.social.
Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts did not play in Saturday’s game against the Brewers, getting a day off amid his worst-ever season at the plate.
Betts is hitting .241/.311/.377 with a 93 wRC+, a batting average 23 points lower than his career worst. Betts’ worst career wRC+ is 107 in 2017, and hasn’t been below 120 in any other season, before this year.
That included only three hits in his last 28 at-bats, and none in his last 12 at-bats dating back to last weekend in San Francisco.
Since the start of June, Betts is hitting just .223/.273/.338 with a 67 wRC+, the latter ranking 160th among 181 qualified major league hitters during that time.
From June 1 through Friday, that Freddie Freeman (60 wRC+), Tommy Edman (55 wRC+), and Teoscar Hernández (55 wRC+) also ranked 166th and tied for 172nd respectively has explains a lot why the Dodgers have been only a so-so team for seven weeks or so.
Betts on Friday talked about his slump and the frustrations of this season at the plate with Fabian Ardaya at The Athletic, an article which included this excerpt on recent work:
Part of Betts’ issues this season have been consistent, said Dodgers hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc. Few know Betts’ swing better. This season, the shortstop has struggled to pin down a moving target with how his hands load into his swing. As a result, all of the minuscule parts that allow his swing to function have been a little off, as well. In one clip of his work in Nashville this week, Betts swung a bat with what appeared to be a medicine ball resting between his elbows. The goal was to keep the ball pinned between his elbows as he loaded and finished the swing.
On Saturday, manager Dave Roberts said the break was a mental one for Betts, per Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times:
“He was more than willing and wanted to be out there. But for me, I wanted to take it out of his hands [so he could] have a day. I’ve talked about this before, just having players watch a baseball game. And I understand we just had four days off at the break. But still showing up at the ballpark, and not participating, watching, that’s a different mindset, psyche than being at home. So for him to come here, show up, not play, know he’s not going to play, I feel good about the work he’s going to put in today. Also, I think, for the mind it will be beneficial.”
