Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Mookie Betts could miss Friday’s series opener against his former team, the Boston Red Sox, due to a personal reason, per manager Dave Roberts.
Roberts didn’t specify the reason, but said Betts could be out for the series opener.
“There might be some things going on that he might not be around, that he’s got to deal with personally,” Roberts said after Wednesday’s win over the Minnesota Twins. “Everything is okay with him, but yeah, we’ll see.”
Betts is hitting just .172 with a .478 OPS over his last 30 games and was recently moved to the leadoff spot to address his struggles. Since the move, Betts has gone 3-for-17 with two walks.
It has been an unfortunate season for Betts dating back to the tail end of spring training when he lost nearly 20 pounds due to a stomach bug that would force him to leave the team’s trip to Japan early and the two subsequent regular-season games that followed.
The right fielder-turned-shortstop started off the year hot, batting .316 through the first 10 games, but things have since cooled down.
Betts is still an elite defender, ranking third among active shortstops in terms of Defensive Runs Saved, and is 10th in terms of Outs Above Average.
The plate discipline from Betts still holds with his 11 percent strikeout-rate (95th percentile across MLB), and a swing-and-miss rate of just 17 percent (87th percentile). Betts just isn’t hitting the ball cleanly this season.
His hard-hit rate (batted balls going 95 mph or faster) is in the 19th percentile across MLB, doing so 34.6 percent of the time, and his average exit velocity grades out to just the 28th percentile in the majors with an 88.4 mph average.
Through Wednesday, Betts is hitting just .238 with an OPS of .679. Both would be by far career-lows for the eight-time All-Star and seven-time Silver Slugger.
