Dodgers’ Mookie Betts stands by bold prediction despite shaky start

Mookie Betts felt like a new player.

Physically refreshed.

Mentally reinvigorated.

The changes were noticeable enough that just a couple of weeks into spring training, Betts was comfortable making a bold prediction about the upcoming season.

He said he would be an MVP-caliber hitter again.

“That’s what I expect,” Betts said in spring training.

The Dodgers are now 56 games into their schedule (ahead of Friday night), and the season hasn’t unfolded the way he envisioned.

Instead of an offensive resurgence, Betts has experienced more of the same that he did in his career-worst season last year. With his team opening a three-game series against the Phillies on Friday night, he is batting .182.

The eight-time All-Star, who turns 34 in October, hasn’t recalibrated his standards, however, and he continues to stand behind what he said in camp.

“I still have that expectation,” Betts said.

He said that belief never wavered.

Not when he missed five weeks with an oblique strain. Not when he batted .157 in his first 12 games after his return. Not when manager Dave Roberts moved him from his customary No. 2 spot in the Dodgers’ lineup to cleanup.

That being said, Betts acknowledged he was relieved when he homered twice in a 15-6 win over the Rockies on Tuesday night.

Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters

“The work,” he said, “worked.”

Roberts suspected Betts was where many of the team’s other players were earlier this month when the team’s run production was down. Considering the time Betts missed, it made sense he would be behind his teammates.

“He’s not confident in his swing, his mechanics,” Roberts said. “I think a little bit, he might be taking that into the batter’s box.”

Which was why Roberts was encouraged when Betts drove in a run with a sacrifice fly Monday night in the series opener against the Rockies. In Roberts’ view, Betts was able to compete without overthinking the details of his swing.

“He was going to will himself to drive that run in,” Roberts said.

Roberts has become a confidant to Betts over the years, and the manager thought switching his place in the lineup might help him.

So on Tuesday, Roberts removed Betts from his customary No. 2 spot and dropped him to cleanup.

Betts responded by homering twice. He finished the game with three hits.

Betts later downplayed the change in the order, focusing more on what he did to prepare for the game.

“The work that we put in finally translated,” he said. 

He pointed to how he showed up to Dodger Stadium early at the expense of his personal life.

“There’s no secret how much I’m here early,” he said. “I’m not even spending as much time with my kids and my family as I really need to, especially going through this situation.”

Betts wouldn’t specify what he worked on but said he thought he and the coaches finally identified “the right things.”

“I know exactly what I need to do every day,” Betts said. “That doesn’t mean it’s going to translate into hits, but I know exactly how to train my body, train my mind, to let it translate on the field now.”

The disclaimer proved prescient, as Betts went 0-for-4 the next day in the series finale. But as he said, he now has direction to go along with his belief that a return to baseball’s elite circle remains possible.