TAMPA, Fla. – Twelve games ago, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts switched Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts in the batting order, moving Betts into the leadoff spot in hopes that it would be the thing that would spark a turnaround in his season.
It was not.
Roberts moved Ohtani back into the leadoff spot and dropped Betts back to second for Sunday’s game against the Tampa Bay Rays. In 11 games as the leadoff hitter, Betts was 8 for 43 (.186) with a .498 OPS. He was hitless in his last 14 at-bats before Sunday.
“It’s kind of just trying to figure out what’s best (for the) short term,” Roberts said Sunday. “Longer term, we’ve got (Max Muncy) coming back soon. Will (Smith is) not playing every day, obviously, as a catcher. Just trying to figure out. But I felt today, with Teo (Hernandez) not being in there, this was the best lineup for today. And that’s kind of where I’m at right now.”
Betts’ average had sunk to .235 going into Sunday’s game with a .667 OPS, by far the worst of his career. Roberts would not say if the current order (the same one the Dodgers started the season with) would be permanent. But dropping Betts even lower in the order would certainly be justified.
“I thought about it. I think it’s a totally fair question,” Roberts said. “I’m just trying to figure out what would be best for him, for the team. But yeah, I thought about it. And again, you’ve still got Andy (Pages), Teo scuffling as well. And so trying to figure out … what makes sense. And so it’s a fair question. But not right now.”
Betts has put in extra work on a daily basis trying to snap out of his season-long slump. There is some thought that it is the result of the spring virus that caused him to lose weight and strength and alter his mechanics to compensate. But that was over four months ago now.
“Honestly, no,” Roberts said when asked if he had an explanation for the precipitous decline in Betts’ offensive production this season. “I know that he and the hitting coaches have been working diligently, consistently, intentionally. I think that the first thing, the easiest thing, to say is it’s a mechanical thing. So I guess kind of that’s where he’s at. But also I do believe that there’s a mental part of it, too, which is sort of beating him down a little bit, where I’m just trying to continue to instill my faith in him and confidence in him.”
Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman praised Betts’ defense at shortstop while acknowledging it has been “a challenge and a struggle for him” offensively.
“No one feels that more than Mookie himself,” Friedman said recently. “I think when he gets into a little bit of a funk he cares so much and works so hard to get out of it that it makes it even more difficult.
“It’s going to happen. It’s only a question of when. One thing that would be really helpful is for him to be kinder on himself.”
Roberts acknowledged as much, agreeing that Betts’ struggles have impacted his self-confidence.
“Absolutely. Yeah,” Roberts said. “When you look at the scoreboard, it definitely plays into confidence, absolutely.”
Ohtani didn’t thrive while in the No. 2 spot. He was 12 for 49 (.245) in 12 starts batting second with 24 strikeouts in 56 plate appearances – part of a longer trend that saw him hit .214 in the 30 games before Sunday. Ohtani is threatening to challenge his career-high in strikeouts (189 in 2021). He was fourth in the majors with 135 entering Sunday.
Roberts said he hopes moving back into the leadoff spot might spark him. But there’s only so much a lineup change can do, the manager said.
“I do think that once you’re in the batter’s box, you’re the batter’s box,” he said.
MUNCY PROGRESS
After going 0 for 9 with five strikeouts in his first three rehab games with Triple-A Oklahoma City, Max Muncy was 3 for 3 and drove in a run Saturday night.
Muncy has played seven innings at third base in each of the past two games. He is scheduled to DH for OKC on Sunday and could rejoin the Dodgers early in their homestand which starts Monday.
Muncy has been on the Injured List since suffering a bone bruise in his left knee on July 2.
UP NEXT
Cardinals (RHP Sonny Gray, 10-5, 4.38) at Dodgers (RHP Tyler Glasnow, 1-1, 3.98 ERA), Monday, 7:10 p.m., SportsNet LA, 570 AM