The second half of the Boston Red Sox's season opened with three tough matchups against first-place teams. The Los Angeles Dodgers will be the last of them.
LA and Boston will play a three-game series at Fenway Park beginning on July 25. Former Red Sox fan favorite and sure-fire future Hall of Famer Mookie Betts may not participate in the series-opening game on Friday evening. Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts spoke about Betts' circumstances after its July 23 win over the Minnesota Twins.
“There might be some things going on that he might not be around, that he’s got to deal with personally,” Roberts said. “Everything is okay with him, but yeah, we’ll see.”
The Dodgers have been tight-lipped about the reason behind Betts' potential absence, as they should when it comes to personal matters. Hopefully, Betts will be able to play in the final two games of the series, as he's only expected to miss Friday's contest.
Red Sox fans still miss Betts after the disastrous trade that sent him to Los Angeles five years ago, and any time he comes to town is a treat. Boston will miss Betts if he's out for the entire series, but he also hasn't looked like himself at the plate this season.
Mookie Betts may miss first game of Dodgers-Red Sox series in Boston due to personal matter
Betts is batting .238/.309/.370 with a career-low .679 OPS in 94 games so far this season. This is a severe offensive dip for the veteran, who is a career .290/.369/.514 hitter over 12 years in the major leagues. Betts has been an All-Star in eight of his seasons in MLB, and 2025 is the first year since 2020 that he didn't make the cut for the National League squad.
The outfielder-turned-shortstop is still solid defensively, with one out above average and a 75th percentile range among shortstops. He also still has an elite eye, with a 95th percentile strikeout percentage, despite his offensive troubles.
Betts may just be regressing as a player, which is almost sure to happen with age. He's 32 and should still be far from the end of his career, but his diminished offensive performance is so out of character that it's forced fans to speculate. Betts also had a vicious stomach illness over the offseason — which will sound familiar to Red Sox fans, as Wilyer Abreu was sidelined for most of spring training with a gastrointestinal ailment — and he lost over 20 pounds from the sickness. Even a professional athlete's body will take quite some time to bounce back from such an illness, and it could have affected Betts' conditioning.
No matter what's going on with Betts — on and off the field — many Red Sox fans wish him the best. Hopefully, he'll make his return to Boston for the final two games of the series.