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The process is methodical, the effort is meticulous. For Los Angeles Dodgers star Mookie Betts, there is no super power he can rely on for his swing.
Prior to the shortstop sustaining a fractured toe, he was hitting .254 with an OPS of .742. Betts considered those numbers disappointing, and they were by his standards as his OPS was the lowest of his career.
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Betts’ ongoing struggles at the plate planted a seed of doubt as the Dodgers star wondered whether he would ever return to his best form.
“Yeah, definitely there’s doubt,” Betts said to The Orange County Register’s Bill Plunkett. “The game is moving. The game is moving and if you don’t keep moving with it you’ll get left behind. Look, man – I’ve never been the fastest on the field, I’ve never been the biggest on the field, I’ve never been the strongest on the field. I am literally average across the board in all facets of the game. I have to rely on a lot of things in my process to be perfect. That’s just the way it is.”
The start of the 2025 season was arduous for Betts, who came down with a violent stomach virus toward the end of spring. While he traveled to Japan with the rest of the team, he was eventually sent home early in order to rest and recover for the Dodgers’ home opener 10 days later.
Betts believes he developed bad habits upon his return after losing nearly 20 pounds because of the illness. However, a fractured toe may have been the much-needed break Betts needed to regroup in the batters box.
Since returning from the injury, Betts has a .351 batting average and a .901 OPS across nine games.
“I don’t have a superpower to fall back on. I’m not those guys,” Betts explained. “I don’t have those things to fall back on. So it really has to be right, my process has to be right. You might say, ‘Oh, your hand-eye coordination.’ Everybody’s hand-eye coordination here is good – elite at this level. That doesn’t set you apart. It’s got to be something. So I feel like mine is my process and my hard work. That’s really the only thing I can control. I can’t make myself bigger or stronger or all those other things.”
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Photo Credit: Jonathan Hui-Imagn Images
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