LOS ANGELES — Dave Roberts stayed true to his word Sunday.
As Mookie Betts returned to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ lineup after a one-day respite, Roberts did not move the struggling shortstop down in the order. Rather, he moved Betts — whose .688 OPS would be the worst of his career — up a spot back to the leadoff position, flipping him and reigning National League MVP Shohei Ohtani in the team’s lineup.
Today’s #Dodgers lineup vs. Brewers: pic.twitter.com/zhIIKou1mO
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) July 20, 2025
Betts had been effectively benched for the day in Saturday’s loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, with Roberts noting that the frustrations from the worst offensive half of Betts’ career had bled into the team’s first game after the All-Star break. The former MVP, by his own admission, has gotten “lost” in his struggles. If the Dodgers are going to become baseball’s first repeat champions in a quarter century, they’ll need Betts to get right.
Roberts hopes that moving Betts back to a familiar position — he has led off in 1,069 of his 1,471 games in the majors — could lock things back into place, emphasizing the process of getting on base over the various mechanical tweaks the shortstop has tried so far this season. He’ll remain there at least until Max Muncy returns from the injured list, something that could happen within a couple of weeks.
“It also speaks to how much faith I have in him as a ballplayer, to where he’s scuffling, to not move him down but ironically move him higher in the order,” Roberts said.
Roberts said he’s considered the move for weeks. It still comes as a major surprise, given the production to date. Ohtani had led off all but two of the Dodgers’ first 99 games this season, where the team had gotten more production out of the first spot in the order (.991 OPS) than any team in baseball. Betts has floundered this season, ranking 127th out of 157 qualified hitters in the majors in OPS.
His underlying numbers are ugly. While he’s striking out less, his contact and chase rates would be the worst of his career. When he is making contact, he’s hitting for less power than he ever has. Betts’ bat speed, which already took a downturn in 2024 from where it was in 2023 (the furthest the public data allows), has continued to go down.
Dodgers hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc pointed to the work Betts has done to reestablish how his hands load into his swing, the first of several moving pieces in Betts’ swing that, when done in concert, have made Betts into one of the most feared hitters in the sport. All those components have not worked in harmony this season. The usual remedies Betts has tried in the past have not worked.
“The cues and feels that I’ve used my whole life, in Boston and L.A., just don’t work anymore,” Betts said Sunday morning. “So I’m just trying to find out who I am now, what works now. It’s hard, but I got to figure it out at some point.”
Still, Roberts said, he’s leaning on Betts’ track record while deflecting the different theories behind Betts’ slide.
It’s not Betts’ age, Roberts said, noting that the 32-year-old’s decline in bat speed has more to do with not feeling “convicted” in his swing and being “in-between” in his decisions.
“It’s certainly not an age thing,” Roberts said. “I know he’s still in his prime. I know he’s as strong as he’s been in quite some time. It’s not an age thing.”
Mookie Betts has hit .178 with a .507 OPS over his past 30 games. (Elsa / Getty Images)
Roberts doesn’t believe it’s the move to shortstop, even while acknowledging the taxing nature of the position, which Betts is playing full-time in an unprecedented switch at this stage of his career. He shut down the idea of moving Betts off the position, saying he will remain the Dodgers’ shortstop.
Roberts was also less willing to concede that Betts losing 20 pounds due to a stomach virus on the eve of Opening Day has had a cascading effect on Betts’ production, noting that the shortstop regained the weight quickly and is months removed from the issue.
“I don’t think there are any reasons outside of me just not figuring out who I am now, not finding what works for me now,” Betts said.
Betts, for what it’s worth, lent more credence to the idea Friday, saying, “It could be. Yeah, I don’t know. You guys are watching this unfold the same way I’m watching it unfold.”
The search for answers has brought the Dodgers here, trying something that they hope can shake Betts loose. If it’s a mechanical issue, as Roberts said, the hope is that shifting Betts’ perspective can open up something new. While Betts certainly received lineup protection with Freddie Freeman hitting third behind him, there might be something different to have Ohtani hitting behind Betts, as well.
Another added benefit, Roberts said, is giving Ohtani more time to rest on days when he’s pitching, giving him a chance to get a breather upon coming off the mound after the first inning rather than the NASCAR pit crew-like setup that awaited him when he was leading off. It’s a side selection to what the Dodgers are hoping is the bigger goal: getting Betts going.
Given the offense’s combined struggles over the past 18 days since Muncy’s injury — their .597 team OPS ranks second worst in baseball, as Freeman, Teoscar Hernández and others have continued their midseason swoons — it’s worth shaking things up. This just wasn’t how anyone expected that shakeup to play out.
(Top photo: Kirby Lee / Imagn Images)
