Mookie Betts missed the Los Angeles Dodgers’ season opener in Tokyo as he dealt with a stomach virus that prevented him from eating and keeping any solid food down for multiple weeks.
The Dodgers never fully determined what Betts was dealing with because all his tests came back clean. He was treated with two liters of intravenous (IV) fluids, and was able to continue working out.
“It’s hard to just not eat,” Betts said at the time. “You can’t come to work and not eat. You know how I am, practicing all day, and my body is just kind of eating itself,” he said. “It’s hard to not fuel it. Literally every time I fuel my body, I throw up.”
That illness caused Betts to lose around 25 pounds, which brought his weight down to 150 pounds.
Upon his return to the lineup for the domestic opener at Dodger Stadium, Betts was confident he was fully ready to go and back to normal. But the illness had some lingering and unexpected issues.
Betts has seen his bat speed decrease this year to just 68.1 mph, which is in the sixth percentile of MLB players. In other words, 94% of hitters swing the bat harder than Betts.
That has caused issues for Betts, mainly in the power department, and it was a struggle for the 32-year-old to get his bat to a place where he felt confident with it, he said via Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic:
“I have a baseline of numbers as far as bat speed that I try and hit throughout the day to make sure I’m moving fast enough and ready for a game. I could not get the bat to those numbers,” Betts said.
“My bat speed, even fully healthy, is already below average. Now you take off 20 pounds and it’s even worse. I’m like, ‘Man, I’ve got to do whatever it takes to get the barrel going.’”
With the decrease in bat speed, Betts has seen his numbers drop this season. He is batting just .257/.347/.407 with six home runs, 36 runs, 28 RBI, four stolen bases and a 117 wRC+.
His expected slugging percentage is only .389, which ranks in the 35th percentile among players. Betts has also managed to hit the ball hard in just 34.5% of his at-bats, which is in the 18th percentile.
When bat speed first started being tracked in 2023, Betts swung at 71.3 mph, which put him far closer to middle of the pack. In turn, that saw him post elite offensive numbers across the board.
In 2024, his bat speed decreased to 69 mph, and he also saw some decrease in his power and hard-hit rates. Now with another decrease, those numbers have dropped even more.
It is a real concern with Betts on the wrong side of 30, but he maintains elite bat-to-ball skills and plate discipline, which should help him remain productive, even if the power never fully returns.
Mookie Betts working to correct bad habits
Betts did not realize how much his weight loss affected him, and it created some “really, really, really bad habits” with his swing. Those also took some time to fully creep into his game as he looked great early on upon his return.
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