![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/USATSI_27224176-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\nLOS ANGELES \u2014 Mookie Betts did not have time to think. It wouldn\u2019t matter. That was the point of all the work he\u2019d done to remake himself into a major-league shortstop.<\/p>\n
It was the sixth inning of a one-run game, with the bases loaded and just one out, and the Los Angeles Dodgers were still working to close out the Cincinnati Reds. That\u2019s when Austin Hays sent trouble toward short, a soft liner off the end of his bat, the kind of play that any hesitation could turn into a nightmare. Betts did not hesitate.<\/p>\n
This was Mookie, the new version \u2014 the version the Dodgers will need to repeat as World Series champions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just kind of reacted,\u201d Betts said Wednesday night, recounting how he fired a sure throw home to record the first out of an inning. \u201cI think that\u2019s why I\u2019ve been able to play short, be comfortable out there, because I\u2019m just kind of playing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Betts could have broken to attempt a spectacular catch, or he could have backed up and risked taking too much time. Instead, he anticipated the short hop and attacked it like a seasoned big-league shortstop. Then he looked up at the runners before firing a strike to the plate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just proud of myself for making it all the way through the year and actually achieving a goal that I kind of set out to do \u2014 and that\u2019s being a major-league shortstop \u2014 and say I did it and I\u2019m good at it,\u201d Betts said, ahead of the Dodgers\u2019 National League Division Series matchup with the Philadelphia Phillies. \u201cNow it\u2019s just a matter of going out and doing it on the big stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gone is the offensive slump that dragged on and on. Gone are the days when the outfielder-turned-infielder had to think through situations and hops he\u2019d never seen before.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Mookie Betts started hitting again once he was able to stop pressing so hard on defense. (Cincinnati Enquirer via Imagn Images)<\/p>\n
Betts\u2019 dazzling as a shortstop in October is a concept that seemed unfathomable even to him just a few years ago. But this stage was set by the winter that preceded it, when Betts worked fastidiously with infield coach Chris Woodward, video coordinator Pedro Montero and former big-league infielder Ryan Goins to learn how to be a shortstop in the majors.<\/p>\n
An offseason trip to Austin, Texas, to visit former All-Star shortstop Troy Tulowitzki served as a finishing school for a transition without precedent.<\/p>\n
The result this season was a glove regarded as one of the best in the sport at one of the game\u2019s hardest positions. Betts went from the 101-level to graduate school in record time. His 17 Defensive Runs Saved this season led all major-league shortstops.<\/p>\n
When prospect Alex Freeland came up to the big leagues for the first time this July, he affixed himself to Betts\u2019 hip. Freeland, a well-regarded defensive infielder, was learning from a six-time Gold Glove right fielder how to play shortstop. Betts doesn\u2019t take hours\u2019 worth of groundballs anymore. Instead, his daily routine is refined: It\u2019s \u201csharpening your knife,\u201d Betts calls it.<\/p>\n
The position consumed him and his mental bandwidth until it didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could just go out there and play,\u201d Betts said. \u201cAnd now when I go out and play shortstop, it\u2019s like I\u2019m going out to right field. I don\u2019t even think about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy training is good. I believe in myself. I believe in what I can do. And now it\u2019s just like, go have fun. When the ball comes, have fun. So that\u2019s when I knew I could finish the season (at shortstop).\u201d<\/p>\n
He doesn\u2019t remember when it happened. But one inning in August against their eventual Wild Card Series foe showed the breakthrough in full effect. The Reds\u2019 Ke\u2019Bryan Hayes stung a ball toward Betts\u2019 right, the kind of ball that had always given Betts trouble in his brief forays at shortstop before this season. Betts took an anticipatory step and didn\u2019t hesitate, breaking toward the ball and sliding to grab it. In one motion, he popped back to his feet and fired. The throw to Freddie Freeman at first base was perfect.<\/p>\n
Betts looked euphoric.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just looked like a natural shortstop right there,\u201d Roberts said, recalling the moment. \u201cHe\u2019s been as good as I could have ever expected playing that position.\u201d<\/p>\n
His defensive strides have opened up the rest of his game. Just like when he starred in right field, Betts doesn\u2019t have to think about his glove. That has freed up his bat, which looked doomed from the start this season. Betts lost close to 20 pounds on the eve of Opening Day due to a stomach virus.<\/p>\n
Now, he can acknowledge that the illness sapped his strength. He let bad habits creep in as he tried to compensate for his weight loss. Each thing he tried to fix his swing just made things worse.<\/p>\n
Then he let go. Credit what you want for Betts\u2019 revival. It could be the visit he had with longtime friend and teammate J.D. Martinez in Tampa, Fla., who has always been a sage for Betts\u2019 swing. It could be that his newfound comfort at shortstop allows him more time and bandwidth to try to get things right. Maybe it was shedding expectations. He said in August his season was over, to \u201cchalk it up\u201d as a bad season that sticks out like a sore thumb when lined up next to the others in his career.<\/p>\n
Betts had the longest hitless stretch of his career, 22 miserable at-bats, that bled into August. When he broke out of it, the hits kept coming. Betts hit .317 the rest of the way, with an .892 OPS in his final 210 plate appearances.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just hard to gain your weight and sustain strength in the middle of a season, when you\u2019ve been traveling and doing all these things,\u201d Betts said. \u201cI think I finally got all that back and was able to fix a couple of mechanics and didn\u2019t really have to try and add on power anymore. I could just swing and let it do its thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Betts flashed his brilliance on both sides of the diamond as the Dodgers closed out the Reds in the Wild Card Series. After that nifty play on the ball off Hays\u2019 bat, the Dodgers preserved their lead, as Yoshinobu Yamamoto struck out the next two batters to end the inning. Betts added to the Dodgers\u2019 lead a half-inning later, scorching a double down the third-base line as one of four hits on the night.<\/p>\n
A season that tested Betts like no other now has him playing freer than ever before.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I just accepted failing, and so my thought process on failing changed,\u201d Betts said. \u201cAnd it was instead of looking at the things as failures, I looked at it as: \u2018OK, well, I know that\u2019s not it. Now I can move to the next thing \u2026 instead of sulking in \u2014 well, I tried this and it failed, now I don\u2019t know where to go.\u2019 I just used (failures) as positive things, and it eventually turned.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Top photo: Ronald Martinez \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 Mookie Betts did not have time to think. It wouldn\u2019t matter. That was the point…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[2323,363,99],"class_list":["post-199391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}