The Los Angeles Dodgers are without their superstar leadoff man and shortstop indefinitely due to Mookie Betts suffering a fracture in his left hand after being hit by a 98 mph fastball.
Shohei Ohtani has taken control of the leadoff position while Betts is gone and Rojas has taken over the bulk of shortstop duties. The Dodgers have already faced questions of depth this season, especially after the injury to Max Muncy, making Betts’ injury all the more difficult to face.
Freeman, who remained in his No. 3 spot in the batting order, admitted that trying to replace Betts is an impossible task. But he spoke about what L.A. could do in the meantime, via Juan Toribio of MLB.com:
“You’re never gonna replace Mookie Betts. He’s a top-five player in all Major League Baseball,” said Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman. “But you know, we got a lot of good guys in this group. A lot of veteran guys. A lot of us have been on teams that have lost people to injuries. But we got a good group to hold it down. We’ll let him get healthy and welcome him back here sooner rather than later.”
Rojas shared a similar sentiment as Freeman, praising the talent on the Dodgers roster while understanding that Betts is one of the best players in the game and cannot be made up for easily.
“We feel bad for Mookie, for the team and for baseball,” Rojas said. “You could never replace a guy like Mookie. But we have a lot of talent in this group. We have a lot of players that can hold it down until Mookie comes back.”
The Dodgers still have the necessary talent to win games in his absence. However, the longer Betts is out, the harder it will get to make up for his loss.
Getting Muncy back in the lineup eventually would be a huge boost, and perhaps a trade could happen to help bridge the gap.
But at the end of the day, Betts is a true superstar and one of the game’s most complete talents. The Dodgers are not going to get equivalent production out of one or even several players, but their talent should be enough to remain atop the standings while he recovers.
Mookie Betts may return as Dodgers shortstop
The fact that Betts will be missing a significant amount of time could force the Dodgers to move him off the shortstop position when he returns. Betts has not played particularly well at the position thus far, and now he will be missing valuable reps to improve.
However, the Dodgers are not ready to give up on Betts as a shortstop in the event they don’t add a starter at the position at the trade deadline.
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