by Cary Osborne
The Dodgers and Mookie Betts are both bullish on what he can do from the shortstop position in 2025.
Dodger Executive Vice President and General Manager Brandon Gomes said Betts will be the Dodgers’ everyday shortstop in 2025, and the plan will be to not move him around like in 2024.
“He’s ready for the challenge,” Gomes said. “He feels like with the full offseason he can go and tackle that. And like we’ve said before, he’s one of the guys that we certainly wouldn’t bet against.”
Betts moved from right field, where he won six Gold Gloves, to second base at the beginning of Spring Training, to shortstop to begin the season and back to right field when he returned Aug. 12 from a fractured hand last season.
Betts started 61 games at shortstop last season and made nine errors — eight throwing. It’s a big reason why the Dodgers believe that, with the experience and the offseason, that he will excel as a defender at the position.
“I think with Mook what was most impressive, if you look at all of the most challenging parts of the position, he does really well. And where he struggled was throwing,” Gomes said. “You go watch him in right field it’s one of the best arms in the game. It’s incredibly accurate. So those things that are most challenging to teach — getting off the ball, range, making exceptional plays, his pre-pitch timing — he nailed those. It was really syncing up his throw from that because he’s been so used to the outfield throw. So I think that’ll be the majority of his work is how does he access what is an elite arm and have that translate to the infield.”
After the Dodgers won the World Series, the discussion came up about Betts again playing shortstop. He will begin working with Dodger first base coach Chris Woodward in the offseason to further get settled at the shortstop position.
“There’s just an inherent trust going on that he is going to do everything he can to be an elite, elite shortstop,” Gomes said.
The domino effect is that Tommy Edman, who signed a five-year extension with the team on Nov. 29, will go into 2025 as the team’s primary center fielder and Gavin Lux stays at second base. It opens up a spot in right field.
In areas non-related to the Betts position move, Shohei Ohtani is in his throwing program. The expectation is that Ohtani will not be ready to pitch by Opening Day, which will be March 18 against the Chicago Cubs in Tokyo. The expectation is he’ll be ready to play designated hitter, though, after he had arthroscopic surgery to repair a labrum tear on his non-throwing shoulder on Nov. 5.
Tyler Glasnow, who missed the final seven weeks of the regular season and postseason with a sprained right elbow, is throwing.
“We expect a fairly normal offseason and he’s feeling really good and excited to start ramping up,” Gomes said.
Freddie Freeman is expected to be participating in Spring Training after he had surgery on Thursday on his right ankle consisting of debridement and the removal of loose bodies.
Mookie Betts will move back to shortstop in 2025 was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.