Mookie Betts will return to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ lineup on Monday after a two-month absence due to a fractured left hand.
However, the All-Star will be playing a new, but familiar, position when he takes the field against the Milwaukee Brewers. Betts will return to right field, where he has played most of his career, including his 2018 MVP season with the Boston Red Sox. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts announced the decision before Friday’s matchup with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Miguel Rojas will remain at shortstop, where he has played since Betts went on the injured list, with Nick Ahmed filling in.
Betts was the Dodgers’ starting shortstop until his injury, and he moved to that position during spring training amid Gavin Lux’s pitching struggles. He played 65 games (61 starts) there this season. The plan was to keep Betts at shortstop when he returned, but he says it was better for the team to move back to right field.
“I think it was a mutual thing, but I would say I mostly turned to them,” Betts said, according to Mike Digiovanna of the Los Angeles Times. “I told them, ‘Listen, I think I can do it, but I want to win, man. I want to win. And I don’t know if I (at shortstop) am the best solution.'”
Jason Heyward has played right field for most of the season. The veteran is playing solid defense at that position, according to advanced metrics, but he’s also hitting .204 with a .665 OPS.
Betts is clearly an offensive upgrade, though, with a .304 batting average and .892 OPS, with 16 doubles, 10 home runs and nine stolen bases, and he has always been excellent in right field, with 132 career defensive runs saved and six Gold Gloves for his play.
“This is basically kind of reading the environment, him and I talking,” Roberts told reporters. “And that’s part of my job, to get a sense of where he’s at and where the team is at. And this is something that we both feel, the organization feels, is what’s best for the Dodgers in 2024.”
Additionally, Betts will give up the leadoff spot in the batting order upon his return to Shohei Ohtani, who has compiled a .274/.383/.637 batting average with 16 homers and 17 stolen bases at the top of the lineup.