Mookie Betts looks lost at the plate. In a recent game, he struck out swinging, stranded a key runner, and walked back to the dugout frustrated. This is a huge shift from just a few months ago.

It was October 31, 2025, and the Los Angeles Dodgers were facing elimination against the Toronto Blue Jays in World Series Game 6. Mookie Betts broke out to smash a crucial two-run single in the early innings to force a Game 7. Now, in May, he can’t find his swing. He is currently batting .165 and has just managed to hit four homers so far. For fans hoping to see Betts coming out of a slump soon, manager Dave Roberts has a worrying update.

“Dave Roberts said Mookie Betts is ‘not confident in his swing, his mechanics. I think a little bit overthinking, trying too hard, anxious,’ Roberts added. He thinks Mookie is in a similar spot to a lot of the other hitters when they were struggling earlier in the month,” Dodger Blue cited Roberts.

Last year, the scene was no different.

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By August, he was slashing .241/.311/.365 in 113 games.

“I’m going through stuff now that I’ve never had to go through in my entire life. Like, ever. So I don’t know how to get out of this,” Betts admitted back then.

It looks like he is still clueless. This year, Betts is making some good contacts. His 2026 hard rate percentage sits at 39.4%, indicating that when he does swing the bat hard, he reliably puts the ball in play. However, runs are not coming in.

For instance, against the Milwaukee Brewers, he went 1-for-5 with a strikeout, failing to drive in runs. In another game against the Brewers, he went 0-for-6 with a strikeout and left a season-high six runners on base.

The reason could be that Betts is trying every pitch hard and swinging everything coming to his bat. The same happened with Shohei Ohtani.

He experienced a brutal stretch early this month, going 0-for-17 over a five-game stretch and hit just .111, dropping his batting average to .240.

Roberts and hitting coach Aaron Bates noted that Ohtani became overly aggressive. His mechanics suffered as he became “pull-happy,” rolling over on pitches and hitting a high volume of grounders to the right side instead of staying inside the ball to drive it to left-center.

Ohtani snapped his slump by hitting a 398-foot home run against the San Francisco Giants. For Betts, though, fans are still waiting.

Betts hasn’t looked right since last year.

A stomach bug in early 2025 caused him to drop nearly 15 pounds, and that physical setback ruined his season. He finished with a career-low .244 average and a .370 slugging percentage, while his bat speed and power noticeably declined.

This year is no different.

Betts sustained a right oblique strain in April that sidelined him for five weeks, and now that he is back, his struggles continue. Historically, Mookie Betts is a great hitter in May, usually posting an OPS well over .850, making this current slump (.572 OPS) really unusual.

Roberts shared Betts’ problem but no solution. And considering the current situation, the Dodgers have less scope in replacing Betts.

The Dodgers have limited options to replace Mookie Betts

During Betts’ injury, Hyeseong Kim and Miguel Rojas divided the shortstop responsibility. But they are struggling.

Kim started as the No. 8 batter against the Brewers and went 0-for-4 with three SOs. It resulted in a drop in his average from .264 to .251. Last April, Kim was batting .296, but it all went for a toss this month. Till now, Kim is batting .214 in May, and in the last five games, he went 2-for-15 with 6 SOs.

“He’s started reaching for pitches he should be taking.” Roberts noted, “In counts where he should be aggressive, he’s become passive.”

Meanwhile, Rojas managed to hit just one homer so far, and what’s probably his last year with the Dodgers, Dave Roberts would surely not plan to replace Mookie Betts with Rojas.

Despite his batting struggle, Betts brings Gold Glove-caliber right field play, along with playing second base and shortstop. So, till the time the Dodgers are not desperate about promoting someone from the minors, Mookie Betts is here to stay. Fans can only hope that he breaks out of the slump at the earliest.