Mookie Betts is back, and more ‘tough decisions’ are coming for the Dodgers

MILWAUKEE — Some things don’t change, including Mookie Betts’ superstitions. The Los Angeles Dodgers superstar is not a fan of ghosts, which is an issue because the supernatural is rumored to inhabit the historic Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee, where the Dodgers and most visiting clubs stay while in town.

So Betts got an Airbnb in Milwaukee last year instead of staying with the club.

This year, even as his position changes and the Dodgers roster whirls like a perpetual motion machine, Betts followed the same plan.

“Don’t want to mess with them,” Betts said.

So Betts booked another Airbnb in the area for this week. Then, on Monday, Betts marked his return from the injured list and played the outfield for the first time in 306 days. He hit second for the first time since 2020. And the Dodgers took more steps toward finally being something resembling whole.

“Hopefully we’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel,” Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes said.

Betts had to wait until Shohei Ohtani flew out in the first inning before he took his first at-bat, wearing a guard over the left hand he fractured on a hit-by-pitch back in June. The third pitch he saw from Milwaukee Brewers right-hander Freddy Peralta was a fastball that rode up and in toward that hand. Four pitches later, Betts waved through strike three, swinging at a slider hard enough that he fell into the left-handed batter’s box.

In his second at-bat, he turned on an inside fastball from Peralta and drove it over the fence for a two-run homer.

Little of this is new for Betts — except playing his third position in less than 12 months. He played 70 games at second base last season. Re-learning shortstop this year, he said, was a challenge, one that he and several around the team said reinvigorated him. Returning to right field, where he has six Gold Gloves is not. If anything, he said, going back there will allow him to “go to sleep with a clear mind” rather than think about the learning curve he has to account for in the infield.

“I’m not, like, living life, looking for challenges, so especially like that,” Betts said. “Nor do I care what the challenge is. I’ll be ready for whatever. But right now the challenge is winning a World Series, and that’s hard enough.”

A bigger challenge might be figuring out who stays on the roster and who doesn’t if the Dodgers can muster anything close to health.

Betts’ return came with at least one surprise. The Dodgers designated Amed Rosario for assignment, just two weeks after the club acquired him in a deal shortly before the trade deadline. The utility man was still hitting .305 on the season. It’s a move that, at first blush, is perplexing even within the wave of reinforcements the Dodgers expect. The club seemingly built redundancy into its roster, adding Rosario and Tommy Edman to their group of utility types that already included Kiké Hernández and Chris Taylor (who remains on the injured list).

“We had a tough decision, tough conversation,” manager Dave Roberts said of the Rosario move.

Gomes explained the Rosario acquisition as a short-term solution that could develop into a longer-term one should any of their injured players require more time. Those timelines for return have shortened. Betts came back Monday. Max Muncy and Edman should be back as soon as the Dodgers return from this road trip next week. The Dodgers have been blunt that they view Rosario as a platoon player; with a run of right-handed starters coming up, that cut out any potential starts before Muncy or Edman returned.

“This,” Gomes said, “was how things played out.”

Rosario will almost certainly be claimed on waivers over the coming days. When Roberts broke the news to Rosario on Sunday afternoon, he told the 28-year-old as much.

“(I) look forward to seeing him sometime in the postseason,” Roberts said. He added that the Dodgers, for as much as their depth has been tested by a glut of injuries this summer, are “kind of in bed with the guys that we have.”

That group will continue to change over the next week. Cutting Rosario gives Hernández — who entered Monday hitting .278/.342/.444 since the All-Star break, apparently in part due to new glasses he’s wearing to correct the astigmatism in his right eye — a continued chance to keep rolling until Muncy returns at third base. Both Hernández and Nick Ahmed provide coverage at shortstop as the Dodgers trot the 35-year-old Miguel Rojas out at the position, which could resolve itself when Muncy returns as well.

The Dodgers’ outfield production has been dreadful this season outside of Teoscar Hernández, though that instantly got an MVP-caliber boost on Monday when Betts returned to right field.

Getting Edman back will help matters, too. He will largely play center field, though he also qualifies as middle-infield depth. Edman could cut into playing time for Jason Heyward, who Roberts called a “stalwart” in right field just two weeks ago and who has primarily started against right-handed pitching. It is likely to diminish the playing time for rookie Andy Pages — an ideal fit in right field who has manned center field along with Kevin Kiermaier for the last week.

They’ll also have to figure out where Walker Buehler (due back Wednesday) and Ryan Brasier (due back this weekend in St. Louis) to fit in as well.

“I do think that this is, with this roster right now as we look out, is the best version of our team,” Roberts said.

Having Ohtani, Betts and Freddie Freeman back as the MVP triumvirate atop the Dodgers order? That’s something they hope doesn’t change again anytime soon.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.