{"id":33557,"date":"2025-03-16T07:32:39","date_gmt":"2025-03-16T07:32:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=33557"},"modified":"2025-03-16T07:32:39","modified_gmt":"2025-03-16T07:32:39","slug":"dodgers-star-mookie-betts-in-danger-of-missing-tokyo-series-against-cubs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=33557","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers star Mookie Betts in danger of missing Tokyo series against Cubs"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<div id=\"post-featured\" class=\"wp-caption \">\n<div class=\"h-responsive\">\n<figure class=\"h-responsive__inner\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment-featured-image size-featured-image wp-post-image\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/mookie-betts.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 820px) 95vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/mookie-betts.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780 780w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/mookie-betts.jpg?quality=15&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1100 1100w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/mookie-betts.jpg?quality=35&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1350 1350w\" alt=\"Mookie Betts of the Los Angeles Dodgers\" width=\"780\" height=\"520\" data-dom-ready-time=\"914\" data-img-load-time=\"1053\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"caption-credit\">Getty<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"c-post-image-caption-text\">Mookie Betts of the Los Angeles Dodgers<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>It\u2019s being reported that\u00a0Dodgers\u00a0superstar Mookie Betts may be at risk of missing their opening series against the Cubs in Tokyo. The reigning World Series champion has been dealing with flu-like systems all week, which caused him to miss the last two Dodgers Cactus League games.<\/p>\n<p>Mookie Betts has been a sensational player in his career and has a laundry list of accomplishments. The thirty-two-year-old is an\u00a08x All-Star, 6x gold glove winner, 7x silver slugger, and a 3x world series champ. His 70.3 career bWAR puts him right on the cusp of being top-100 in MLB history. He is no doubt a first-ballot Hall of Famer and one of the best players of this generation.<\/p>\n<h2>The diagnosis is grim<\/h2>\n<p>When asked about the status of Betts, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said \u201cMookie is here today, but he\u2019s been really sick. Lost some weight, so we\u2019re trying to get him hydrated. He\u2019s going to work out a little today, but he won\u2019t be playing either tonight or tomorrow. Then, when we have our off day, our workout day, we\u2019ll see how he is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Dodgers have no exhibition games remaining after their win against the Yomiuri Giants by a score of 5-1 on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>After that, they get ready to play a Cubs team who are also not 100% healthy.\u00a0 Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner will miss this series. Hoerner will be rehabbing his arm injury back in the States.<\/p>\n<p>When asked about his health Betts replied by saying \u201cI\u2019m alive\u201d to a local reporter. This quote was intended as sarcasm but may paint the picture of just how much the illness is affecting him. The Dodgers hope that hydration and extra sleep will do more than keep him \u201calive\u201d and help him to be ready to play.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Making the switch to shortstop<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>This season, Betts will be making the transition to shortstop full-time. His positional versatility is an incredible asset for the Dodgers. Last season Betts split time between Second (18 games) Right field (43 games) and Shortstop (65 games). While constantly rotating defensive positions, Betts maintained his excellent offensive output. His slash line of .289\/.372\/.491 with a .863 OPS was a bit below his career marks but was still very good.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, his -4 Outs above average at short last season were below average. But he should be given some grace given his inexperience in the position. Most players would transition away from short to the outfield in their later years, but Betts did the opposite. After spending the majority of his career as a Right fielder, the Dodgers have experimented with him at short since 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Ironically he was originally drafted as a second baseman by the Red Sox in 2011. In his career, he has appeared in eighty-one games as a shortstop, all with the Dodgers.<\/p>\n<p>With Betts\u2019s status up in the air for the opening series the Dodgers will turn to Miguel Rojas to man shortstop in his absence. Last year Rojas had a nice season slashing .238\/.337\/.410 for a .748 OPS and 113 OPS+. His veteran presence will be leaned on during this time. The Dodgers lineup has plenty of firepower with or without Betts. But his temporary absence certainly evens the scales for the Cubs a bit more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Getty Mookie Betts of the Los Angeles Dodgers It\u2019s being reported that\u00a0Dodgers\u00a0superstar Mookie Betts may be at risk of missing their opening series against the Cubs in&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Dodgers star Mookie Betts in danger of missing Tokyo series against Cubs - 24\/7 News America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=33557\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dodgers star Mookie Betts in danger of missing Tokyo series against Cubs - 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