The Dodgers, fresh off their biggest win of the young season Sunday, had a lot to be pleased about as they walked out of the visiting clubhouse at Petco Park. They didn’t know about the minor bus accident and travel snafus that would prevent them from getting to their haunted Milwaukee hotel until after 3 a.m. local time on Monday.
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They’d just battled back from down to their final out against the Padres. Mookie Betts had taken Josh Hader, one of the game’s premier closers, deep to extend the game. Michael Busch, in just his second at-bat in five days, supplied the winning hit. James Outman blasted yet another critical home run. Even Freddie Freeman, whose Golden Tee obsession reaches a whole other level with the machine located in San Diego, set a new machine record in shooting 24 strokes under par on the simulator.
So, big series, huh?
“No, not at all,” Betts said. “It’s May. We have a lot more baseball to play. It’s a good series win, but no, it doesn’t mean anything more than just winning a series.”
Ah, well. The Dodgers are playing good baseball these days, aside from Monday night’s blowout loss in Milwaukee. So why not field some questions about the state of the club?
You all submitted plenty of questions, enough that this will likely get broken into two parts. Here’s the first one. Some questions have been lightly edited for clarity.
Shouldn’t the Dodgers move on from station-to-station baseball? They don’t have the lineup to make it work this year. It’s led to even more of a boom-or-bust offense. — Tiffany O.
The numbers don’t bear that out. They aren’t as station-to-station as they had been, either, ranking 17th in stolen bases. While they aren’t ever going to be confused with some of the run-and-gun teams of the past, they’re aggressive enough to take advantage of some of the new rules. As it is, they remain a top-10 offense in the sport. Clubs like the Diamondbacks and the Pirates are effective offenses while stealing more bases, but it’s hard to argue against what the Dodgers are doing. They’re not the dynamic force of a year ago, but they remain quite good on the whole. The new rules help bridge the gap and allow clubs to generate offense in different ways when things aren’t going well, but hitting the ball hard in the air and over the fence will always be the most efficient way of scoring runs.
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What do the Dodgers do to prepare for hitting with runners in scoring position? Do they preach a philosophical change at the plate and do players go to the plate thinking differently? Do they practice these situations or try swings to put the ball in play more? Essentially what do the Dodgers do and what are they doing to address the failures of hitting with RISP that come up time and time again in big games and especially the playoffs? — Jay S.
Let’s look at a year ago. The league strikeout rate in all situations was 22.4 percent, including 23.3 percent with the bases empty. With runners in scoring position, that rate is 21.4 percent. With runners in scoring position and fewer than two outs, it’s 20.4 percent.
So as a whole, strikeout rates still go down in situational spots. Teams still shift their swings to put the ball in play more when needed.
In the case of the Dodgers, they struck out slightly less often than the league as a whole in all situations (22.0 percent) and with no runners on (22.6 percent). They struck out less than the league average with runners in scoring position, too (20.9 percent). With runners in scoring position and fewer than two outs? Still lower than the league average (19.3 percent) — among the 10 best clubs in baseball at it, actually. That’s why they were the best team in baseball a year ago with runners in scoring position (130 wRC+) and up there when it came to having runners in scoring position and fewer than two outs.
It’s early going this year, but they’re a top-five team in baseball with runners in scoring position. There’s a notable shift in the Dodgers’ willingness to put the ball in play in those spots compared to others.
You’re right, the Dodgers’ failures last October were tied to struggles with runners in scoring position. It’s the biggest reason they got eliminated. They hit worse in general during that series than they had during the regular season, in part because they kept facing off against better arms and because offenses always perform worse in that environment.
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They just needed to hit better, and not have one of their worst stretches with runners in scoring position all season happen in October. It’s not a satisfying answer, but it’s the simplest one.
What would you do to solve for a shortstop this year? — Chris K.
How long will the Dodgers continue to roll out Miguel Rojas every day at short? — Sam S.
If you’re the Dodgers, you’re hoping that the Brewers or White Sox are very out of it at the deadline this year and are amenable to trading someone like Willy Adames or Tim Anderson. Other than that, it’s either ramping up Mookie Betts’ time at the position (adding a corner outfielder against left-handed pitching at the deadline would be easier to find than a premier shortstop) or hoping Chris Taylor can turn the clock back to the first half of 2021, when he had an .834 OPS and helped the club absorb the loss of Corey Seager due to a broken hand.
The long and the short of it is, there probably won’t be a real answer here until July. Players of Anderson’s and Adames’ magnitude aren’t usually moved in May or June. So the Dodgers will need to hope for better results from the group in place.
Rojas already isn’t really an everyday player. Manager Dave Roberts said he anticipates Betts playing 20 percent of the time in the middle infield for the rest of the regular season. They’ve gotten Chris Taylor more looks at shortstop to stave off Rojas’ lower half from breaking down. Rojas also just hasn’t hit — and he’s under contract through next year now, too.
Why is LAD so resistant to making Mookie the permanent solution at shortstop? A solid outfield replacement is WAY easier to find than a solid shortstop replacement. The pool of options is bigger. A stud shortstop is far more valuable than a stud right fielder. — Scott F.
There is some sound logic here, and the days when Betts plays shortstop (typically against right-handed pitching) are the days when the lineup looks its strongest. The maneuver has the buy-in from the pitching staff, including Clayton Kershaw.
Something to keep in mind, and something Freddie Freeman said (completely unrelated to Betts) when I asked him about his time at third base in 2017. There’s a mental toll to playing a different position on an everyday basis. Some players are better at compartmentalizing it than others. Freeman actually graded out fine defensively over his brief time there, but his bat fell off a bit on those days — a 1.009 OPS as a first baseman, as opposed to a .881 OPS as a third baseman.
So far, in a small sample, Betts has hit three homers in games in which he’s played shortstop. So maybe that effect won’t matter to him. But it’s something the Dodgers will probably look at.
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Is Mookie an offensive superstar? — Rich S.
Even before his leadoff blast on Tuesday, he had a career 134 OPS+, never dipping below 17 percent better than the league average over a single full season. Even if you want to just look at the time since he won league MVP, he has been a top-20 hitter in the sport by that metric. He’s prone to bouts of streakiness, sure, but he’s only struck out 100 times in a season twice, draws walks and hits for power. He’s an offensive superstar, no matter what way you look at it. I’m surprised it’s even a question, even though he’s struggled by his standards to start the season.
(Photo: Charles LeClaire / USA Today)