LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers positioned Mookie Betts on the paternity record earlier than Tuesday’s recreation in opposition to the Mets because the star outfielder and his spouse, Brianna, welcomed their second baby early Tuesday morning.
Although a paternity record stint might be prolonged for as much as three days, Betts isn’t anticipated to be away from the crew for lengthy. In truth, Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts expects him again within the lineup for Wednesday’s finale in opposition to the Mets, the MLB.TV Free Game of the Day.
When Betts returns to the crew on Wednesday, the 30-year-old gained’t be enjoying proper discipline, a place the place he has gained six Gold Glove Awards in his adorned profession. Instead, Betts will likely be beginning at shortstop for the primary time in his Major League profession.
“There’s a chance I might slide him over to shortstop,” Roberts mentioned with a smile. “He looks extremely natural. The guy can play anywhere on a baseball field.”
Betts, in fact, got here up as a second baseman by means of the Red Sox’s Minor League system. He was pressured to choose up proper discipline with a view to pace up the method of getting him to the Majors. Since then, Betts has turn out to be top-of-the-line defensive proper fielders in baseball, taking residence his most up-to-date Gold Glove Award on the place final season.
But regardless of his pure ability within the outfield, the infield has at all times been Betts’ true ardour. He is getting extra enjoying time at second base this season. Roberts mentioned Betts “has been clamoring” for a couple of years for the Dodgers to let him play shortstop, the place he performed rising up.
“I think there were some reservations about him playing second base last year and he quickly put those to bed,” Roberts mentioned. “So it’s going to be the same thing.”
Sliding Betts over to shortstop is a enjoyable improvement, nevertheless it additionally comes out of necessity for a struggling Dodgers crew that got here into Tuesday’s recreation with a sub-.500 report after 17 video games for the primary time for the reason that 2018 season.
With Miguel Rojas struggling on the plate and Chris Taylor battling a left facet damage that can sideline him for at the very least a couple of days, the Dodgers wanted to discover their choices. That’s when Roberts known as Betts on Tuesday morning and advised him the plan of getting him into the sport at shortstop. Betts, whose third-favorite place seems to be proper discipline, was ecstatically on board with the choice.
“I think when you’re talking about the third string at any position, there’s some things that have to happen that you just got to kind of get through,” Roberts mentioned. “But to have Mookie as your third string at anything, I think teams can be doing a lot worse.”
Though Betts takes grounders at shortstop earlier than practically each recreation, it’ll be fascinating to see how he fares enjoying some of the demanding positions on the diamond. Betts hasn’t began knowledgeable recreation at shortstop since 2012 when he was in Low-A with the Red Sox.
It may be a one-game factor for Betts. He’ll nonetheless be the crew’s main proper fielder. But how a lot he performs shortstop and second base will in the end be decided by how rapidly Taylor recovers from his damage. If Taylor is sidelined for an prolonged time period, Betts will get much more appears within the infield.
“He’s been clamoring for quite some time, so we’ll see how it plays out,” Roberts mentioned.
Content Source: www.mlb.com