Earlier than the beginning of the season, Dodgers first base and infield coach Chris Woodward pulled Mookie Betts apart at some point, and had him envision the last word finish consequence.

“You’re gonna be standing at shortstop when we win the World Series,” Woodward advised Betts, the previous Gold Glove proper fielder within the midst of an virtually unprecedented mid-career place change. “That’s what the goal is.”

Two months into the marketing campaign, the Dodgers imagine he’s checking the requisite bins on the trail towards getting there.

“I would say, right now he’s playing above-average shortstop, Major League shortstop,” supervisor Dave Roberts stated this week. “Which is amazing, considering he just took this position up.”

Betts has not solely returned to shortstop this season after his unconvincing three-month stint on the place final 12 months; however he has progressed a lot that, not like when he was moved again to proper discipline for the stretch run of final fall’s championship march, the Dodgers don’t have any plans for the same late-season change this time round.

“I don’t see us making a change [like] we did last year. I don’t see that happening,” Roberts stated. “He’s a major league shortstop, on a championship club.”

“And,” the supervisor additionally added, “he’s only getting better.”

It implies that now, Betts’ problem has gone from proving he belongs at shortstop to proving he can grasp it by the tip of the season. The purpose Woodward laid out originally of the 12 months has out of the blue change into rather more sensible now. And over the subsequent 4 months, Betts’ capacity to shine his shortstop play looms as one of many Dodgers’ greatest X-factors.

“Getting to that, even when he’s as good as he is now, there’s still a lot to learn,” Woodward stated. “He’s done good up to this point. So how do we maintain that [progress]?”

In Yr 1 of enjoying shortstop on a full-time foundation final season, Betts’ preliminary expertise was marked by trial and (largely) error. He struggled to make correct throws throughout the diamond. He lacked the instincts and confidence to cleanly discipline even many routine grounders. In his three-month cameo within the position — one reduce brief by a midseason damaged hand — he dedicated 9 errors and ranked below-league-average in a number of superior metrics.

“Last year,” first baseman Freddie Freeman stated when reflecting on Betts’ preliminary foray to the shortstop place, “it was like a crash course.”

In Yr 2, alternatively, Betts has graduated to one thing of a ending faculty.

In contrast to final 12 months, when the previous MVP slugger switched positions simply weeks earlier than opening day, Betts had your entire offseason to arrange his sport. Over the winter, he improved the strategy of his glovework whereas fielding balls. He educated on the right way to throw from decrease arm slots than he had within the outfield. He centered on conserving a wider and extra athletic base with the intention to adapt to humorous hops and sudden spins. He established a base of fundamentals that, final 12 months, he merely didn’t have; offering renewed confidence and consistency he’s been capable of lean on all season.

“Preparation,” Betts stated not too long ago in regards to the greatest distinction in his shortstop play this 12 months. “[I have been able] to prepare, have an idea of what I’m doing, instead of just hoping that athleticism wins. At this level, it doesn’t work like that. So you have to have an idea of what you’re doing. And I work hard every day. I’m out there every day early. Doing what I can to be successful.”

Such strides have been illustrated in Betts’ defensive numbers. He at present ranks seventh amongst certified MLB shortstops in fielding proportion, his three errors so far tied for the fewest amongst those that have made not less than 50 begins. His superior metrics are equally encouraging, rating top-five in outs above common and defensive runs saved.

“He looks like a major league shortstop right now,” Roberts stated, “where last year there were many times I didn’t feel that way.”

A completed product, nonetheless, Betts continues to be not.

There are refined intricacies he has but to completely grasp, similar to the place to place on relay throws from the outfield. There are rare, higher-difficulty performs he’s but to discover ways to deal with.

One essential educating second got here early within the season, when Betts’ incapacity to corral a tough hooking one-hopper in a sport towards the Washington Nationals led to him and the teaching workers including extra unpredictable fungo-bat fielding drills into his each day pregame routine.

“It just kind of prompted a conversation of, ‘You’re gonna get different types of balls, and those are pretty rare. But what’s the process of catching that ball? And what do we need to practice?’” Woodward recalled, resulting in adjustments that have been enacted the very subsequent day.

“The drills we do now, I don’t know if anybody else can make them look as easy as he now does,” Woodward added. “When he first started, you could tell, ‘Oh man, it’s uncomfortable.’ But now, I smoke balls at him … and he’s just so under control.”

One other second of frustration got here final Sunday in New York, when Betts athletically snared a bouncing ball on his forehand up the center … however then airmailed a backhanded, off-balance flip throw to second base whereas making an attempt to show a possible double play.

Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts throws to first base throughout Monday’s sport towards the Cleveland Guardians.

(David Dermer / Related Press)

“That was the first time ever in my life I’ve had to do that,” Betts stated days later, prompting him to hunt out extra recommendation from Woodward and veteran shortstop teammate Miguel Rojas. “Miggy was telling me I can’t stress about it, because he got to mess that play up in high-A [when he was first learning the position]. Woody told me he got to mess that play up in double-A. I’m messing this play up for the first time ever in my life — in the big leagues.”

For Betts, it may be a irritating dynamic, having to endorse inevitable such struggles as he seeks his desired defensive progress.

“I definitely feel I’ve grown a lot, just from the routine perspective,” he stated. “But I don’t want to hurt the team, man.”

Which is why, within the days instantly afterward, he then included underhand flip drills into his pregame work as properly.

“You’re going to have to go through those moments to learn, to understand,” stated Rojas, who has been a sounding board for Betts ever since final 12 months’s preliminary place change. “I don’t consider that an error. I consider it a mistake that you’re gonna learn from. Because that play is gonna happen again.”

“It’s like life in general. It’s about learning from your mistakes,” Freeman echoed. “And not that that [flip play] was a mistake. But it’s like, ‘Now I know how to adjust off of that.’ If he was not even trying to attempt things, then you’ll never know what you can really achieve out there. I think he’s learning his limits of what he can do. And I think that’s the key to it.”

Such moments, in fact, additionally underscore the inherent danger of entrusting Betts (who nonetheless has a grand whole of solely 132 profession MLB video games at shortstop) with maybe the game’s most difficult place.

It’s one factor for such a blunder to occur in a forgettable late Could contest. It’d be far much less forgiving in the event that they have been to proceed popping up in essential video games down the stretch.

There’s additionally a query about whether or not Betts’ give attention to shortstop has began to have an effect on his bat, with the 32-year-old at present hitting simply .254 on the season whereas struggling incremental dips in his underlying contact metrics.

The foundation of these struggles, Betts believes, stems extra from unhealthy habits he developed whereas recovering from a abdomen virus at first of the season that noticed him lose virtually 20 kilos. Then once more, despite the fact that he has been capable of higher average his each day pregame workload in contrast with the hours he’d spend each day fielding grounders final season, he’s nonetheless “learning a whole new position at the big-league level,” Freeman famous, “and all his focus has been on that.”

All of it creates a comparatively tight needle for Betts and the Dodgers to string the remainder of the 12 months. Betts not solely has to make continued strides on protection (and show, at a naked minimal, he received’t be a downgrade from the group’s different in-house choices, similar to Rojas or Tommy Edman), however, he additionally get his swing again in a spot to be an influence presence on the prime of the lineup.

“It’s a lot to take on, to be a shortstop in the big leagues,” Freeman stated. “But once he gets everything under control, I think that’s when the hitting will pick right back up.”

It figures to be an ongoing course of, one that would have season-defining implications for the Dodgers’ World Collection title protection.

Nonetheless, within the span of two months, Betts has proven sufficient together with his glove for the Dodgers to not transfer him — making what began as a seemingly doubtful experiment right into a doubtlessly everlasting resolution.

“People around baseball should be paying a little more attention to the way he’s been playing short,” Rojas stated.

“He’s had a lot of different plays that he’s been able to kind of see in games,” added Roberts. “He’s a guy that loves a challenge, and he’s really realized that challenge and keeps getting better each night.”