Mookie Betts solidified himself at shortstop. Now he's helping other Dodgers

New York Times

12 hours ago

LOS ANGELES — A night after committing his ninth error of the season, Max Muncy went back to work with a Gold Glover behind him. The Los Angeles Dodgers third baseman's mentor for the day was an interesting one. Mookie Betts' six Gold Gloves came in the outfield, where he was a singular presence as the best right fielder in the sport. Betts spent his winter focusing on an unprecedented move to shortstop in his 30s. It's worked for Betts, who has graded out positively in just about every public metric, along with the eyes of team brass. Unlike a year ago, manager Dave Roberts said he doesn't foresee a situation where the Dodgers ask Betts to move off the position come October.
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Betts' progress at the position has gone so well that he's even working with Muncy on the finer points of his defense. Take Wednesday, as infield coach Chris Woodward chopped Muncy ground ball after ground ball to recreate the funky hop that a Starling Marte ground ball took in the fifth inning of Tuesday's win over the Mets. Standing behind Muncy for each ground ball was Betts. Between reps, Betts reinforced the finer points of attacking the baseball, rather than playing the hop cautiously and having it bounce unpredictably. At the end of the session, the three huddled. Woodward heard the same principles he echoed to Betts this winter being echoed from Betts to Muncy.
'He's obviously learned a lot,' Woodward said. 'He's very knowledgeable about how to attack ground balls. A lot of the stuff that I was telling Max, he's obviously reassuring him in the same way.'
The ground balls that Betts gets at shortstop are different from Muncy's at third. The hops vary. Muncy has to react much quicker. But the principles of the exercise are the same, hammered home to Betts through a winter of reps with Woodward, video coordinator Pedro Montero and former All-Star shortstop Troy Tulowitzki. So Betts decided to help.
'Mook wants to win,' Muncy said. 'He wants to win more than anything.'
If it looked uncommon, that's because it was. As much as Miguel Rojas was a veteran presence helping Betts' transition to shortstop the last two seasons, much of Rojas' heft came from experience. Betts is still gathering that. While third base may not be Muncy's natural infield spot, he's played nearly double the amount of games at that specific spot as Betts has played in the infield entirely as a big leaguer. Still, the two had taken ground balls together dating back to when the Dodgers' position player group reported early to spring training in Arizona. He's seen Muncy go about his work.
Max Muncy has been working on his defense with the coaches and Mookie Betts. pic.twitter.com/fUiemgKIFa
— Dodger Blue (@DodgerBlue1958) June 4, 2025
More than anything, Betts said, he felt like he went through the same thing with his crash course at the position last season. He has faith in what he's learned and now wants to be a missionary in spreading that message.
'I've been there,' Betts said. 'I know what it feels like. I know what it's like to be in a tough spot. … He has way more experience than me, but this offseason, I learned a lot. I really feel like mentally — I have to go out there and do it — but mentally, I really know what I'm doing. I know exactly what I'm doing. Know exactly what it's supposed to look like. I know exactly what you're supposed to do. And I can teach him. I really can teach him.'
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Betts rallied from that abandoned experiment from last year and remade his defensive work. He's graded out positively by Defensive Runs Saved (2) according to Baseball Info Solutions and Outs Above Average (3) according to Baseball Savant. He looks like a shortstop, Roberts said, which is as good a compliment as any.
'He knows that he has to play well at shortstop,' Woodward said. 'He's said it, 'I'm not going to play there if I can't be a reliable everyday shortstop that can win a World Series.' He's worked his way up to that. He's still got a lot of ways to go. He's playing well, but he still knows he has to maintain it.'
His confidence in trying to instruct Muncy is a testament to the strides Betts has made at the position and his aptitude for the mental side of the sport. This is also just who Betts is. When Andy Pages' early-season defensive struggles in the outfield percolated with a poor read on a Bryce Harper double in Philadelphia in early April, Betts huddled Pages and Teoscar Hernández into a corner of the visiting clubhouse and talked through the mechanics of the play and how Betts would have gone about getting a good jump.
'It's just one of those things where everyone leads in their own way,' Muncy said. 'This is how he leads. He tries to make guys better on the field. Some guys are better at leading in the clubhouse. Some guys are better at leading off the field. Some guys are better at leading on the field. This is one of the things that he excels at. He's so good at making everyone else around him better because he's always trying to spread the knowledge that he has.'
Muncy's defense has been a sticking point for the Dodgers. Even as his bat has rebounded from the biggest power drought of his career to start the season, the 34-year-old's defensive struggles have mounted. Only three players — Manny Machado, Willy Adames and Elly De La Cruz — have committed more errors. He's been worth -8 OAA at third base, according to Statcast. Only Kansas City's Jonathan India has graded worse at the position. So Muncy has gone to work, with Betts alongside him.
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Together they've sought out 'the little wins,' Betts said. Like Wednesday, when Marte again chopped a ball in Muncy's direction. The third baseman had a good first step toward the ball and attacked it, using the same finishing motion that Betts had repeated behind him earlier that afternoon. Muncy fielded it cleanly and got the out.
'Nobody cheers when Muncy makes a nice play that really is a nice play, but to you guys it just looks like a play,' Betts said. 'But I know the depth and the detail that goes into it. That's what kind of gets me fired up.'