The Los Angeles Dodgers roster will have plenty of new faces this season after the team committed nearly $1.2 billion to bring in the likes of Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Tesocar Hernàndez and James Paxton, among others.
Expectations are sky-high for the Dodgers as the 2024 PECOTA projections from Baseball Prospectus have them winning another National League West title by finishing the season 101-61, which is good for the top record in MLB.
While the Dodgers usually have a tight-knit clubhouse, but it will take some time for the new additions to blend with the holdovers. Mookie Betts believes that will happen on its own and not necessarily in Spring Training.
“I mean, it’s important but you don’t worry about it. You just kind of let it organically happen,” Betts said when asked how important it is for the Dodgers to build chemistry in Spring Training.
“You can’t force things to happen. You can’t force relationships with people. You’ve just kind of got to let things happen how they do. If they don’t, you just cross that bridge whenever you get there.”
Spring Training is a good time for teams to build chemistry as it lasts for nearly two months before the regular season begins. But as Betts noted, there is no timeline for establishing relationships as they happen naturally and cannot be forced.
The Dodgers’ clubhouse is filled with veterans and led by a well-respected manager in Dave Roberts, so there shouldn’t be any issues for the newcomers getting acclimated.
Mookie Betts wants to prove himself in postseason
Betts is coming off a poor postseason performance that saw him go hitless in 11 at-bats against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NL Division Series.
Betts said he wants to bounce back and prove to everyone that he can be a reliable bat this year when it matters most.
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