{"id":663747,"date":"2026-04-05T01:02:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T01:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/663747\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T01:02:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T01:02:23","slug":"dodgers-announce-mookie-betts-news-after-leaving-nationals-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/663747\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers Announce Mookie Betts News After Leaving Nationals Game"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a> entered Saturday\u2019s game against the Washington Nationals<\/a> looking for their second straight win and hoping some of the team\u2019s best players would start to find their groove. That includes shortstop Mookie Betts<\/a>, who, despite mashing two home runs through his first seven games, is off to a slow start at the plate.<\/p>\n

Betts is now in his seventh season in Los Angeles and is looking to return to form after a down 2025 in which he posted a career-low .732 OPS in 150 games.<\/p>\n

Still, if there is any player capable of bouncing back, it is Betts. He has one of the strongest track records in MLB<\/a> as a former MVP, eight-time All-Star, six-time Gold Glove Award winner and seven-time Silver Slugger.<\/p>\n

\"Los<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts (50)\u00a9 Brett Davis-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

(\u00a9 Brett Davis-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

In his first at-bat on Saturday against the Nationals, Betts drew a walk and later came around to score on a double from first baseman<\/a>Freddie Freeman<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, when the Dodgers took the field for the bottom half of the first inning, Betts was noticeably not present. Instead, Miguel Rojas trotted out to shortstop in his place, immediately raising concern.<\/p>\n

With Betts in the dugout, the Dodgers announced a disappointing update on his status moments later.<\/p>\n

\u201cMookie Betts left today\u2019s game with right low back pain,\u201d the team wrote on X.<\/p>\n

It is unclear how severe Betts\u2019 injury is or whether he was hurt while running the bases, but after scoring, he did appear to walk back to the dugout in discomfort.<\/p>\n

If Betts is forced to miss extended time, Rojas would likely be the first option up the middle. However, Los Angeles will hope that scenario does not unfold.<\/p>\n

Betts remains one of the team\u2019s foundational pieces and will be for the rest of his career. He is signed to his massive 12-year, $365 million contract extension, giving him plenty of time to chase more championships in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

With the Dodgers looking to start the regular season strong, any absence from Betts would only magnify the importance of his recovery and how quickly he can return to the lineup.<\/p>\n

Related: Dodgers’ Mookie Betts Makes Off-Field Announcement Before Nationals Game<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Apr 4, 2026, where it first appeared in the MLB<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Dodgers entered Saturday\u2019s game against the Washington Nationals looking for their second straight win and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2398],"tags":[5,815,774,57,8935,4,1526,415,414,71,4222],"class_list":{"0":"post-663747","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-nationals","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-freddie-freeman","10":"tag-los-angeles","11":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","12":"tag-miguel-rojas","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-mookie-betts","15":"tag-nationals","16":"tag-washington","17":"tag-washington-nationals","18":"tag-washingtonnationals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116349407640032517","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}