GLENDALE, Ariz. – On the back of Mookie Betts’ baseball card, his 2025 numbers stand out like an ugly weed in an otherwise well-tended garden. His batting average (.258), on-base percentage (.326), slugging percentage (.406) and OPS (.732) were all easily the lowest of a career filled with All-S tar appearances and Top 10 MVP finishes (seven including a win in 2018). The lone individual bright spot for Betts last season was his status as a Gold Glove finalist at shortstop, validating all the work he put into the transition from right field. Things got so bad for Betts that he declared his season “over” in early August, vowing to ignore his individual performance the rest of the season and only focus on helping the team win. Betts seems to have further come to terms with his down year, proclaiming a new mindset heading into a new season. “I was upset, until I was able to help the team, until I was able to help the boys. Then I was fine,” Betts said of last season. “But before that, I was really upset. Not with the numbers, per se, but not being able to help. Not doing my job, carrying my weight. So once I was able to do stuff, especially later on in the season, I was able to just kind of take a step back and say, ‘You did pretty good.’” From the time he declared his season over until the end of the season, the less self-critical Betts did carry his weight. He hit .305 over the last 42 games of the regular season. “He’s never struggled like that,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “It’s one of those things that you either spiral and try to find it individually, or you keep grinding and working, but put team success really at the forefront. “I think I learned that he could find a way to compartmentalize, essentially, a lost offensive season, in his words, and then kind of just redirect. And then that’s not easy. I mean, that’s the first time I think any of us have seen him struggle like that.” Betts put it behind him with a much more relaxed offseason. He didn’t have to devote hours to learning a new position. He regained strength after putting the early-season virus that sapped him last year further behind him. He didn’t arrive early to camp, participating in the celebrity side of the NBA’s All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles before reporting to Arizona. And he didn’t play his first Cactus League game until Sunday (the Dodgers’ 10th game of the spring). “I enjoyed both to be honest. I enjoy working. And I enjoy chilling. Whichever one, I was cool with either way,” Betts said of the dichotomy between his past two offseasons. “I’ve put in so much work that, at some point, you just gotta let it do its thing. There’s only so many ground balls you can take. I think I took enough of them last year.” Offensively, he has talked of “rewiring” his swing and how he uses his body at the plate. It’s a back-to-basics approach, he said, with an emphasis on not overworking – or overthinking. “It’s really just going back to what I do best and really honing in,” Betts said. “Instead of just trying to fix problems I was able to go back to what I do best and really groove those patterns instead of trying to fix old patterns. “I’ve never had that year. There’s a first for everything. Sometimes you like it. Sometimes you don’t. But the most important thing is I feel like I embraced it and I was able to attack it and I didn’t run from it.” Roberts is not letting Betts run from expectations of a bounceback year in 2026. He said he expects Betts to be back in the MVP conversation again this year. “I have no doubt about it,” Roberts said. “The way he played shortstop last year, and expecting him to be better offensively this year, he will be in the MVP conversation this year. But speaking for Mookie, his main goal is to help us win a championship. So whatever falls out from there, that will happen. So I just want him to focus on being healthy, helping us win. And then whatever happens outside of that will happen.” With a “rewired” approach and further adoption of some aspects of Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s unique workout routine (under the supervision this spring of Yamamoto’s movement guru, Yada Sensei), a return to MVP level is exactly what Betts has in mind. He has already made one unprecedented transition from right field to shortstop. Why not another from fading superstar back to MVP candidate at age 33? “That’s what I expect,” he said. “I haven’t felt this way in a long time. So the way I feel now – I’m healthy, swing is in a really good spot, head is in a really good spot. I haven’t had any bad days in the cage. Haven’t had any bad days in BP. “Usually by now I would have taken a thousand swings trying to fix stuff and get game ready. Now I’m just cruising – cruising and ready to go.” TURN THE PAGES Andy Pages’ 2025 season was a success. He hit .272 with 27 home runs and 86 RBIs and proved to be an above-average defender in center field. But he finished the year in a 4-for-32 tumble then went 4 for 51 (.078) in the postseason and was benched during the World Series. “I don’t want to take anything away from the pitching staffs, especially in Toronto. It was just one of those times of the year where I just went through a really bad, extended rut,” Pages said this spring through an interpreter. “There was nothing offensively I was doing really well. But I don’t want to take anything away from them. I just want to put it in that bucket as just a really bad streak for me.” Pages has started this spring 6 for 13 with two doubles and a triple. MILLER STATUS Right-hander Bobby Miller has been dealing with some shoulder soreness, Roberts said, and has yet to throw off a mound this spring. Since winning 11 games as a rookie in 2023, Miller has regressed badly and fallen off the major-league depth chart. He pitched just five innings in the majors last season and finished the year pitching in relief at Triple-A where he had a 5.66 ERA over 35 appearances (14 starts). When he’s ready to take the mound this spring, it is likely to be as a reliever again, Roberts said. The chance to build on success in “short bursts” as a reliever could be the first step toward salvaging the former first-round draft pick’s career. Related Articles Dodgers come from behind to beat Angels in Cactus League Dodgers’ Tanner Scott, having ‘flushed’ last year, ready for a new season Dodgers split-squad teams lose to Cubs and Rangers Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto finishes Cactus League work, heads to Japan Dodgers suffer first loss in Cactus League play, roughed up by Giants ...read more read less