Mookie Betts’ Bold Move: From Right Field to Shortstop
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Picture this: It’s mid-August last year, and Mookie Betts is having a heart-to-heart with the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ coaches. He’s been sidelined, nursing a broken wrist, and as he surveys the team, a realization hits him like a fastball: It’s time to head back to right field.
For months, Betts had been on a mission, diving headfirst into the challenge of mastering shortstop during a major league season. It was a humbling journey, but one that also fueled his competitive spirit. On the day he decided to step back, Chris Woodward, then an adviser, approached him with respect and gratitude for his efforts.
“Oh, it ain’t over yet,” Betts declared. “For now it’s over, but we’re going to win the World Series, and then I’m coming back.”
Fast forward to the present, and Woodward, now the Dodgers’ full-time first-base coach and infield instructor, recalls that conversation with a smile. The Dodgers did indeed capture a championship last fall, and Betts, the perennial Gold Glove outfielder, is set to become the everyday shortstop for one of the most talented baseball teams ever assembled.
From November to February, Betts was a man on a mission, visiting high school and collegiate infields throughout the L.A. area almost daily. His goal? To solidify the details of a transition he hadn’t had time to fully prepare for last season.
Pedro Montero, one of the Dodgers’ video coordinators, played a crucial role in this transformation. He set up an iPad on a tripod, capturing Betts as he practiced, and sent the clips to Woodward for review. The trio communicated almost daily, and by the time Betts arrived at spring training, Woodward noticed a “night and day” difference.
Yet, the challenge remains daunting. Meaningful games will ultimately be the true test of Betts’ abilities. The Dodgers have praised Betts for his unselfish act, which allowed Teoscar Hernandez and Michael Conforto to join their corner outfield, strengthening the lineup. Betts himself has said his move to shortstop is about doing “what I feel like is best for the team.” But it’s also clear that he relishes the challenge and the chance to prove doubters wrong.
“Mookie wants to be the best player in baseball, and I don’t see why he wouldn’t want that,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I think if you play shortstop, with his bat, that gives him a better chance.”
ONLY 21 PLAYERS since 1900 have registered 100 career games in right field and 100 career games at shortstop, according to ESPN Research. This list is mostly composed of lifelong utility men. The closest comparison to Betts might be Tony Womack, who transitioned from an everyday right fielder to an everyday shortstop. However, Womack had prior professional shortstop experience.
Betts’ journey is unique. Through his first 12 years in professional baseball, he accumulated just 13 starts at shortstop, all in rookie ball and Low-A from 2011 to 2012. His path as a no-doubt Hall of Famer and nine-time Gold Glove right fielder switching to one of the sport’s most demanding positions in his 30s is largely without precedent. Yet, the Dodgers believe that if anyone can pull it off, it’s Betts.
“Mookie’s different,” third baseman Max Muncy said. “I think this kind of challenge is really fun for him. I think he just really enjoys it. He’s had to put in a lot of hard work — a lot of work that people haven’t seen — but I just think he’s such a different guy when it comes to the challenge of it that he’s really enjoying it. When you look at how he approaches it, he’s having so much fun trying to get as good as he can be. There’s not really any question in anyone’s mind here that he’s going to be a very good defensive shortstop.”
Betts entered the 2024 season as the primary second baseman, a position he had long sought to return to, but transitioned to shortstop on March 8, 12 days before the Dodgers opened their season in South Korea, after throwing issues began to plague Gavin Lux. For the next three months, Betts put himself through a rigorous pregame routine alongside teammate Miguel Rojas and third-base coach Dino Ebel to survive at the position.
The metrics were unfavorable, scouts were generally unimpressed, and traditional statistics painted an unflattering picture — all of which was to be expected. Betts hadn’t spent significant time at shortstop since he was a teenager at Overton High School in Nashville, Tennessee. He was attempting to cram years of experience into the space allotted to him before each game, a task that proved impossible.
Betts committed nine errors during his time at shortstop, eight of them due to errant throws. He often lacked the proper footwork to put himself in the best position to throw accurately across the diamond. However, the Dodgers were impressed by how quickly he grasped other aspects of the position that seemed more difficult for others — pre-pitch timing, range, completion of difficult plays.
Shortly after the Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees to win their first full-season championship since 1988, Betts sat down with Dodgers coaches and executives and expressed his belief that, if given the proper time, he would figure it out. And so it was.
“If Mook really wants to do something, he’s going to do everything he can to be an elite, elite shortstop,” Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes said. “I’m not going to bet against that guy.”
THE FIRST TASK was determining what type of shortstop Betts would be. Woodward consulted with Ryan Goins, the current Los Angeles Angels infield coach and one of Betts’ best friends. They agreed that he should play “downhill,” attacking the baseball, making more one-handed plays, and throwing largely on the run, a style that fit better for a transitioning outfielder.
During a prior stint on the Dodgers’ coaching staff, Woodward — the former Texas Rangers manager who rejoined the Dodgers staff after Los Angeles’ previous first-base coach, Clayton McCullough, became the Miami Marlins‘ manager in the offseason — implemented the same style with Corey Seager, who was widely deemed too tall to remain a shortstop.
“He doesn’t love the old-school, right-left, two-hands, make-sure-you-get-in-front-of-the-ball type of thing,” Woodward said of Betts. “It doesn’t make sense to him. And I don’t coach that way. I want them to be athletic, like the best athlete they can possibly be, so that way they can use their lower half, get into their legs, get proper direction through the baseball to line to first. And that’s what Mookie’s really good at.”
Dodger Stadium underwent a major renovation of its clubhouse space over the offseason, making the field unusable and turning Montero and Betts into nomads. From the second week of November through the first week of February, the two trained at Crespi Carmelite High School near Betts’ home in Encino, California, then Sierra Canyon, Los Angeles Valley College, and finally, Loyola High.
For a handful of days around New Year’s, Betts flew to Austin, Texas, to get tutelage from Troy Tulowitzki, the five-time All-Star and two-time Gold Glove Award winner whose mechanics Betts was drawn to. In early January, when wildfires spread through the L.A. area, Betts flew to Glendale, Arizona, to train with Woodward in person.
Mostly, though, it was Montero as the eyes and ears on the ground and Woodward as the adviser from afar. Their sessions normally lasted about two hours in the morning, evolving from three days a week to five and continually ramping up in intensity. The goal for the first two months was to hone the footwork skills required to make a variety of different throws, but also to give Betts plenty of reps on every ground ball imaginable.
When January came, Betts began to carve out a detailed, efficient routine that would keep him from overworking when the games began. It accounted for every situation, included backup scenarios for uncontrollable events — when it rained, when there wasn’t enough time, when pregame batting practice stretched too long — and was designed to help Betts hold up. What was once hundreds of ground balls was pared down to somewhere in the neighborhood of 35, but everything was accounted for.
LAST YEAR, BETTS’ throws were especially difficult for Freddie Freeman to catch at first base, often cutting or sailing or darting. But when Freeman joined Betts in spring training, he noticed crisp throws that consistently arrived with backspin and almost always hit the designated target. Betts was doing a better job of getting his legs under him on batted balls hit in a multitude of directions. Also, Rojas said, he “found his slot.”
“Technically, talking about playing shortstop, finding your slot is very important because you’re throwing the ball from a different position than when you throw it from right field,” Rojas explained. “You’re not throwing the ball from way over the top or on the bottom. So he’s finding a slot that is going to work for him. He’s understanding now that you need a slot to throw the ball to first base, you need a slot to throw the ball to second base, you need a slot to throw the ball home and from the side.”
Dodgers super-utility player Enrique Hernandez has noticed a “more loose” Betts at shortstop this spring. Roberts said Betts is “two grades better” than he was last year, before a sprained left wrist placed him on the injured list on June 17 and prematurely ended his first attempt. Before reporting to spring training, Betts described himself as “a completely new person over there.”
“But we’ll see,” he added.
The games will be the real test. At that point, Woodward said, it’ll largely come down to trusting the work he has put in over the past four months. Betts is famously hard on himself, and so Woodward has made it a point to remind him that, as long as his process is sound, imperfection is acceptable.
“This is dirt,” Woodward will often tell him. “This isn’t perfect.”
The Dodgers certainly don’t need Betts to be their shortstop. If it doesn’t work out, he can easily slide back to second base. Rojas, the superior defender whose offensive production prompted Betts’ return to right field last season, can fill in on at least a part-time basis. So can Tommy Edman, who at this point will probably split his time between center field and second base, and so might Hyeseong Kim, the 26-year-old middle infielder who was signed out of South Korea this offseason.
But it’s clear Betts wants to give it another shot.
As Roberts acknowledged, “He certainly felt he had unfinished business.”
Originally Written by: Alden Gonzalez
