Plaschke: Hey Dodgers, stop messing with Mookie Betts

C’mon Dodgers, you must realize what you’re doing to your best player, continually drenching his season in uncertainty, battering his body, ruining his rituals, denting his spirit.

C’mon. Dodgers, after what happened again Friday, your mandate is clear.

Stop moving Mookie!

Stop bouncing him recklessly around the diamond and the batting order like he’s a centerpiece in a game of beer pong.

Stop treating him like he’s an aging journeyman with marginal talent, zero power and no voice.

Stop taking his unbelievable good nature and inimitable team spirit for granted, or risk him following the lead of other misused talents in this era of athlete empowerment.

Hint: You don’t need this guy asking for a trade.

You laugh, the Dodgers scoff, there’s few who believe this sweet and selfless star would ever create the commotion that any sort of whispered or shouted get-me-out-of-here demand would cause. Plus, he makes $30 million a year on a deal that extends through 2032, which sort of limits his attractiveness.

But he’s only human, and there’s surely only so much pride he can swallow and perceived lack of respect he can stomach. The Dodgers have seemingly reached this breaking point. They have to stop scheming and rearranging and pushing.

They need to back off and let Mookie be Mookie.

“I’ve been saying the whole time, it doesn’t matter where I play, as long as I’m playing and helping the team win,” Betts said Friday afternoon while sitting in the dugout surrounded by reporters.

Believe that. But you better believe the Dodgers need to stop testing the endurance of those words.

The latest remodel occurred Friday when, three days after announcing that Betts would play shortstop upon next week’s return from the injured list, the Dodgers stated he would instead be moving back to right field.

This, after they started the season moving him from second base to shortstop.

This, after they spent last season moving him from right field to second base.

And this, after they announced this week he was moving out of his cherished leadoff spot and batting second so Shohei Ohtani could keep batting first.

Next up, a spot in the bullpen and a job cutting the grass?

Betts has accepted it all with grace. His contagious attitude makes him the MVP of this season even if he never plays another game. But still, in flipping him around again so soon after the previous reversal, the Dodgers didn’t look professional, didn’t sound appropriate, and it didn’t feel right.

Make no mistake, Betts belongs in right field. He won six Gold Gloves there, remember? The Dodgers are their best team with slick Miguel Rojas at shortstop, resurgent Gavin Lux at second and Betts in right.

This is why they never should have moved Betts from right field in the first place. By making the first unusual switch last season, they sent Betts on an odyssey that is both unseemingly and unfair for a player of his stature.

What do you think LeBron James would do if the Lakers asked him to change his game? He would immediately tweet his dissatisfaction and they would relent, that’s what.

How would Kawhi Leonard act if the Clippers openly pressured him over the past several years to play more games? He’d shut it down, that’s what, and they’d have to coax him back.

While other superstars in this town call the shots, Betts simply absorbs. While other superstars in this town defer to no one, Betts seemingly defers to everyone.

Did you hear what he said this week when asked about giving up his beloved leadoff spot to Ohtani because Ohtani hit well when Betts was injured? A switch made even though Betts became an eight-time All Star by batting leadoff?

“There’s nothing really you can say,” Betts said. “Whatever Shohei says goes, and after that we kind of fall in line.”

That’s as close to bitterness as Betts will veer, but it speaks volumes about a potentially divisive clubhouse issue. If a two-time World Series champion and former MVP feels like a newcomer with no playoff experience runs things, how do the guys with lesser resumes feel?

I asked Betts why he doesn’t complain more about not being given the same latitude most other teams offer their stars. Why doesn’t he act more like the accomplished player he is?

“There’s only one Mookie,” he said. “I don’t care. I want to win. Keep that first and foremost, and the rest just is what it is.”

The Dodgers are incredibly lucky he’s their Mookie. Andrew Friedman did his homework when trading for Betts before the 2020 season. Despite recent postseason struggles, Betts has become a leader by example…and example…and example.

“He is a superstar that is a rarity,” said Dodger general manager Brandon Gomes. “He’s – and I think we have a lot of them on our team – ‘Hey, I will take on any challenges that help the team.’ He’s somebody who puts the team first….at the end of the day, he’s just ‘I’m good with whatever. Let’s go win a World Series.’”

During his meeting with the media Friday, Betts gave every public indication that he was good.

He said it was mostly his idea in the past few days to move away from shortstop after he realized that Rojas, also returning from injury, was a better option there.

“I mostly went to them,” he said. “I said, ‘Listen, I believe I can do it, but I want to win, man.’ I want to win. I don’t know if me right there is the best solution.’”

He’s right, Rojas is a better shortstop, but Betts wasn’t a terrible shortstop, and nobody worked harder at their position this season, Betts taking hours of pregame grounders in the previous few months to master the position.

“I think it’s the challenge that I really truly loved,” he said. “I don’t know if it was necessarily the shortstop thing, per se. I just haven’t been challenged in a long time. So that task, that challenge to accept and be able to play shortstop in the big leagues, and help the Dodgers? I was going to take it on and I’m happy I did. I’m definitely proud of myself for doing that.”

Lots of pride. Lots of work. All for nothing. No matter what Betts says, that has to hurt. He, of course, never should have been moved to shortstop in the first place. The Dodgers should have acquired a shortstop in the offseason and they would never have had this issue.

The saga of Betts is rooted in the reality that the Dodgers have been brushing him around the diamond as a sort of human concealer to mask past front-office failures.

The outcome reached Friday is partially good. Betts is back in right field where he belongs. It’s the circuitous route they traveled to reach that spot that is so troublesome.

Injured Dodgers player Mookie Betts fields balls and keeps his throwing arm in shape as he recovers from injury.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

And, by the way, is Betts really going to be batting second the rest of the season? I asked him, only half joking, why didn’t he negotiate a return to right field for a return to the top of the order? That feels like something LeBron would do, no?

“No, uh uh,” he said. “We got Shohei there. He’s pretty good, too.”

The next several weeks will reveal whether batting in his new spot will suit Betts. It will also show whether Lux can continue to hold down second base and Betts can – fingers crossed – stay in right field.

At this point, there are seemingly no lineup or fielding guarantees of anything regarding Mookie Betts other than he will play out the season in the worst possible position, that being limbo.

Friday’s eventual win over the Pittsburgh Pirates began with newest Dodger Legend Dusty Baker throwing out the first pitch to Betts, who looked rather nifty crouching behind home plate with a catcher’s mitt and…

No.