The answer to how Mookie Betts plans to become an elite shortstop is obvious – he’s going to work at it. “I truly believe in my work, and I’m giving it my all so I can lay my head down at night knowing that my work prepared me for any ball that comes my way,” Betts said this spring. He has put in that work since stepping in at shortstop a year ago. It started with extra hours on the field before games last season when he made his first foray into being an everyday shortstop – a position he hadn’t played on a regular basis since high school. He finished last season back in right field, the position he mastered well enough to win six Gold Glove Awards. But after the 2024 season, Betts and the Dodgers decided he would be their shortstop in 2025. Betts would not be caught unprepared this time. “I started in November about two weeks after the season and I haven’t stopped,” he said this spring before a stomach virus did stop him briefly, causing him to lose weight and miss the first two games of the season in Tokyo. The crash course at shortstop last spring was replaced by intensive graduate work this winter – hours of fungoes hit by Dodgers coach Pedro Montero at baseball fields around Southern California, more work with Dodgers infield coach Chris Woodward and even a trip to Texas where he had reached out to Troy Tulowitzki, an assistant coach at the University of Texas now and a two-time Gold Glove winner and five-time All-Star in his days as the Colorado Rockies shortstop. The work was constant. “Sometimes my wife was rolling me ground balls … I would throw a ball against a wall for an hour if I didn’t have anything else to do,” Betts said. He reported to Arizona weeks before the first full-squad workout this spring. “I see a shortstop where last year I felt I saw an elite athlete playing a premium position,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said this spring. “Now when I look out there and watch him take grounders and throw it across the diamond I see a shortstop.” If that answers the how, another question remains – why? Why are the Dodgers asking one of the best right fielders of his era to play another position? And why is Betts so eager to do it? “To win,” he said, as if it should be self-evident. “I just want to do whatever helps us win and the more good players we can get signed the better your chance to win.” The Dodgers’ front office has said playing Betts at shortstop “fits our roster.” Benefits include being able to add players in the outfield – an easier position to find offensive production than shortstop. But there’s more to it than that. “I think the scarcity of shortstop is underappreciated,” Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes said. “He has said playing the infield, he feels like he’ll age better. It’s not as hard on his legs. He’s completely locked in on being the best he can possibly be there which I think has manifested to an even higher level of focus on the offensive side. “There’s a lot of upside. The impetus was, hey, Mookie really wanted to do it because he feels like he’s confident he can. It’s also much better on his body. Having more of Mookie for longer is better for the Dodgers. That’s how it fits our roster.” The idea that Betts is more engaged – and happier – when presented with a challenge (and right field is no longer challenging to him) is one that is accepted by almost everyone around the team. But not Betts himself. “There’s this narrative, I guess, that it’s personal. No. I just want to win. I want to do what it takes to win,” he insisted. “I’m not bored. Baseball isn’t boring enough for that, especially hitting. There’s always a challenge. I don’t need more challenges. It’s not trying to find ways to challenge myself. No. It’s trying to find ways to get more rings.” But there is something personal for Betts about taking a second run at shortstop. He lets that slip out when asked if he is more excited for this season because of the move. “Yeah, sure,” he said this spring. “I think the most exciting thing is just to prove everybody wrong. I’m really excited to prove everybody wrong and all the people that doubt me, they’ll see.” Whatever doubters there might be might exist mostly in Betts’ mind. The consensus is that, if any player can make such a drastic move, Betts is that guy. But there is no precedent for it. “Not that I have the biggest Rolodex of players but I can’t remember a corner outfielder turning into a shortstop,” Gomes said. “I think we’re all really excited to see it and I’ve said this a bunch, but Mookie’s not somebody that I would bet against.” Certainly, there is no history of a player on a Hall of Fame track as a corner outfielder moving mid-career to the most demanding infield position. “Hasn’t been done,” Betts said when asked why he thinks there are people who doubt his ability to make the switch. “It’s easy for people to knock someone who’s going down an unpaved road, you know? Going down the road, you’re by yourself. Nobody’s done it. There’s a lot of questions about ‘How can you do it?’ I don’t know. Nobody’s done it so nobody’s shown me how to do it. “Going through the process, I can’t call anybody for advice because nobody’s done it. So I’m essentially a pioneer. “Maybe it will be done again – absolutely it’ll be done again. Maybe, maybe not.” The Dodgers have plenty of options to pivot away from Betts at shortstop again (as they did last year when he returned from a fractured hand). Miguel Rojas, Chris Taylor, Tommy Edman and Kiké Hernandez have all logged far more time at the position than Betts. But Roberts calls it “very important” that Betts successfully transition to his new position. “But I think that there’s a wide range of what’s good,” Roberts said. “Certainly, with Mookie, his expectations are higher than what any one of us would expect. But I think for me, it’s just be yourself and be good. It all takes care of itself, because I think a lot of it is subjective anyway. He’s in there, he plays every pitch, and just be Mookie Betts.” Betts cares about his legacy in the game. The Hall of Fame is a goal. Moving successfully to shortstop and winning more rings – he already has three (2018 with the Boston Red Sox, 2020 and 2024 with the Dodgers), the most of any active player – will only enhance that. “Absolutely,” he agreed. “I’ve never heard anybody that has a handful of rings – I’ve never heard them not be in all the places I want to be, which is Hall of Fame, those type of things.” UP NEXT Braves (RHP Grant Holmes, 0-0, 0.00 ERA) at Dodgers (RHP Tyler Glasnow, 9-6, 3.49 ERA in 2024), Monday, 7:10 p.m., SportsNet LA, 570 AM Related Articles Dodgers overcome rough outing by Roki Sasaki to sweep Tigers for 5-0 start Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani throws bullpen session, still ‘a ways away’ as pitcher Alexander: ‘Fight For Glory’ revisits Dodgers’ 2024 World Series run Mookie Betts’ walk-off homer in 10th keeps Dodgers undefeated Dodgers get their World Series rings – ‘final piece’ of 2024 celebration ...read more read less