Read the following sentence at your own risk. Mookie Betts is in a slump. A human highlight reel, the Dodgers’ superstar is slashing only .238/.309/.370 this season. Still, in a column published at The Athletic recently, Hall of Fame writer Jayson Stark put Betts in his biggest club: The “IN RIGHT NOW” tier for Cooperstown. Stark contends that Mookie is a lock with 72.6 career WAR. Now, if a baseball sage such as Stark sees a first-ballot legend in the making, there is only one question that counts: How soon is he back?
That question hung heavy over Fenway Park on Friday. Betts had been a surprise scratch from the lineup due to a personal matter. And the suspense mounted until an update finally arrived via a tweet from AM 570’s David Vassegh. He reported, “Dave Roberts said Mookie Betts is in Nashville and is expected to arrive tomorrow close to game time tomorrow. #Dodgers #RedSox.”
Roberts confirmed this later, pregame, though he hedged about Betts’s immediate playing status. “I think that he’ll be back tomorrow [Saturday] right around gametime… I’m not sure if he’s going to be in the lineup, but he’ll be in town at some point.”
Dave Roberts said Mookie Betts is in Nashville and is expected to arrive tomorrow close to game time tomorrow. #Dodgers #RedSox
— David Vassegh (@THEREAL_DV) July 25, 2025
Betts’ challenges of this season began long before his trip to Nashville. Betts arrived at spring training over 20 pounds lighter, losing weight as a result of a “vicious stomach illness.” He later updated that he had developed “bad habits” in his swing while attempting to make up for lost strength. As if those were not enough, he broke the tip of his toe in late May when he stubbed it at home. His season felt like an uphill battle from the very first pitch.
Despite the rough start, April looked like business as usual. Mookie came out hot to start the year and was batting .316 in his first 10 games. His OPS stood at a robust .954 through April 14. But from May, things started falling apart. He batted just .258 for the month, and upon returning from his toe injury, he was blunt with his self-assessment. His own word for his play? “Garbage.”
The slide became a full-blown crisis in June. After June 8 over his final 32 games, Betts hit an absurd .188 with a paltry .527 OPS and just two home runs. It was one of the worst stretches of his storied career.
By July, manager Dave Roberts felt he had to intervene. The rare decision taken on July 19 to give Betts a “mental break” —taking the decision “out of his hands.”
Upon Betts’ return, Roberts again slotted him into the leadoff position. But the core problem remained. Only two days before the Boston series, Roberts hinted at an off-field issue: “There might be some things going on that he might not be around, that he’s got to deal with personally.” This indicated that Betts might miss the opener.
Mookie Betts’ struggles are more than just getting out of the groove; they reflect a lack of integration between mind and body.
Decoding the slump of Mookie Betts
Digging deeper into the data, it’s a player who just doesn’t seem to be hitting the ball the way he usually does. His average track record of exit velocity (88.3 mph), his hard-hit rate (34.1 percent), and his barrel percentage (5.5 percent) are all at career lows. Worst of all, he has just an average bat speed of 68.8 mph, an 11th-percentile figure among MLB hitters. The explosive force that marked his swing is gone, at least for now.
This mechanical erosion has clearly taken a mental toll. A player who always had the answers is now looking for one solution he’s never needed before. “Things that I used to do that would get me back on track just don’t work anymore,” Betts recently admitted. “So that’s kind of what makes it hard. Pulling from new experiences, new cues, new things. Trying to find the right answers.”
But the team has not lost its faith in the All-Star. We are not speculating it just from the skipper’s body language, but also what the Dodgers did on Friday. In Betts’ absence, they didn’t add any player and were one short on the bench. Roberts placed veteran Miguel Rojas at shortstop and Shohei Ohtani in the lead-off spot. And that change paid off.
Without one of their MVP-caliber players, the Dodgers beat the Red Sox, 5-2. The offense came out in support of starter Emmet Sheehan early, generating runs without the long ball. Tommy Edman had an RBI single in the second inning, and the Dodgers scored twice in the third inning on a bases-loaded walk to Teoscar Hernández and a sacrifice fly by Pages. This was a big win for a team that had lost 11 out of its previous 15.
But one win might not hide a much deeper issue.
The Dodgers were winning at a wild .667 clip this season when Betts was scorching. It should be no surprise that over his extended slump that began in mid-April, that winning percentage has dropped to .565. The team is good without him, but great WITH him. Now, as the season marches toward October, their road to a championship has less to do with winning a game in July than getting Mookie Betts right for the games that actually matter.
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