MILWAUKEE — Who ya gonna call?
Mookie Betts called AirBnB again. Last year when the Dodgers played in Milwaukee, Betts did not stay at the team hotel – an allegedly haunted building in downtown Milwaukee – opting for a presumably specter-free rental where he could record his podcast and not worry about finding out for himself if the ghost stories are true.
“You can tell me what happened after,” he said last year. “I just don’t want to find out myself.”
His views on the paranormal are still the same.
“No. That ain’t going to change,” he said when asked about it this year.
Betts has enough change in his life this week. He was activated from the injured list after missing 45 games with a fractured left hand. But he returned to bat second behind Shohei Ohtani, not his accustomed leadoff spot, and play a new old position. He was in right field Monday night for the first time since the 2023 season.
“It’s just whatever’s best for the team, man, and I felt like that it’s best for the team,” Betts said of returning to right field after spending the first 2½ months of the season at shortstop. “I do believe that I can be a good, good shortstop, but there’s a couple guys in our clubhouse that are very, very good at it, Gold Glove winners, so they need to take care of that. I feel like what’s best for for me and the team is to go out and play right field.”
That move will most directly impact Jason Heyward’s playing time and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he spoke with the 35-year-old veteran about it.
“Jason just wants to be a part of things and will do anything that’s asked,” Roberts said. “He wants to play, like all players want to play. He understands where we’re at, how this roster is shaping up, the value of Mookie playing right field and what the implications are.
“I’m going to try to find some at-bats for him. We’ll see how it goes. Jason’s been a big part of what we’ve done, what we’re planning on doing.”
Roberts said Heyward will get a start this week when Betts gets a day off and could see time in right field if the Dodgers occasionally move Betts to second base.
SHORT TIMER
In order to activate Betts from the IL, the Dodgers had to make a move. That move was somewhat surprising. Two weeks after acquiring him at the trade deadline, they designated infielder Amed Rosario for assignment. Unable to trade him now, the Dodgers will get nothing in return but the waiver price if he is claimed by another team.
General Manager Brandon Gomes said Rosario was the choice to go because there wouldn’t be a role for him when the Dodgers’ other injured players return (third baseman Max Muncy and utility man Tommy Edman are expected to come off the IL next week) and the Dodgers don’t expect to face a left-handed starting pitcher before then.
“While Amed was obviously having a great year, we didn’t see him starting any of these games coming up and feel like just the overall construction of our team as we look at right now and going forward this was the way to go,” Gomes said.
The Dodgers had that in mind when they made their moves at the trade deadline, he said.
Rosario appeared in just five games for the Dodgers, starting three (two at second base, one at shortstop). He was 3 for 11 (.273).
PITCHER INJURIES
Gomes said it hasn’t been determined yet if rookie right-hander River Ryan will require surgery to repair the injured ligament in his pitching elbow. Ryan left his start Saturday night with the injury and underwent an MRI on Sunday that revealed a strained ulnar collateral ligament – the ligament repaired with Tommy John surgery.
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Ryan is the 10th starting pitcher the Dodgers have placed on the IL this season. If he undergoes Tommy John surgery, he would join a very long list of pitchers – with the Dodgers and every other team – that have had the surgery.
Gomes said the Dodgers are trying to figure out what has led to the uptick in pitcher injuries over the past few seasons. But there are so many factors – from the odd schedules in 2020 and 2021 (first the COVID-19 pandemic then the lockout) to the crackdown on “sticky stuff” and the institution of a pitch clock.
“We’re looking into it and trying to figure out is there an acute thing? Is there an over-arching issue to get at?” he said. “Right now, I wish I had more answers but we continue to dig. We’re seeing it across the industry. We feel it more acutely when it happens to us. But I don’t think this is all that unique.”
UP NEXT
Dodgers (RHP Gavin Stone, 9-5, 3.71 ERA) at Brewers (RHP Colin Rea, 10-3, 3.38 ERA), Tuesday, 5:10 p.m., SportsNet LA, TBS, 570 AM
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