Dodgers Place Mookie Betts On Injured List With Oblique Strain

The Dodgers announced this morning that they’ve placed veteran star Mookie Betts on the 10-day injured list. Jack Harris of the California Post relays that, according to manager Dave Roberts, Betts has suffered an oblique strain. Utility man Hyeseong Kim was recalled from the minors in a corresponding move. Maddie Lee of the LA Times first reported that the club was likely to recall Kim earlier this morning, though she noted that they intended to check in with Betts about the status of his back before doing so.

It’s hard to know how long Betts will be sidelined until the Dodgers give a more firm timeline, but oblique strains are notoriously finicky for position players due to the rotational nature of hitting. Even the most minor of oblique strains can require weeks on the shelf thanks to the risk of re-injury, so it’s entirely possible that the Dodgers will be without their star shortstop until sometime in May. A more significant oblique strain could take significantly longer, and a rehab assignment would further push Betts’s timeline back. The good news, however, is that The Athletic’s Katie Woo writes that Roberts didn’t put an immediate timeline on the veteran’s recovery window but that the team is hopeful he could be back before the standard 4-6 week recovery timeline.

Regardless of how long it takes for Betts to return, it goes without saying that losing him is a real blow. The 33-year-old is coming off a down 2025 season where he posted a wRC+ of just 104, but he’s managed to make himself into a solid defensive shortstop and certainly has the ability needed to return to form offensively this year if his health permits it. The loss of Betts’s bat is something the club can paper over in the short-term thanks to the other stars in the lineup and a strong early-season performance from Andy Pages, but it’s going to be harder to stomach his absence from a defensive perspective.

In the past, Miguel Rojas has been tapped to handle shortstop for the Dodgers when Betts has been injured. That still appears to be the case for now, as Rojas is slated to fill in at shortstop during today’s game against lefty Foster Griffin. With that said, Rojas has played the position with less and less frequency over the past few years and is now 37 years old. If the Dodgers find that he’s lost a step defensively at the position, perhaps Kim could be another option given his experience at shortstop for the club last year. MLB.com’s Sonja Chen reports that Kim and Rojas are expected to share shortstop, with prospect Alex Freeland continuing to mostly handle second base. Freeland has more than 3000 innings of experience at the position in the minors but has yet to play the position in the majors.

As for Kim, the 27-year-old has hit a robust .346/.438/.385 in six games at Triple-A since the Dodgers’ surprising decision to option him to the minors for the start of the season, and his 95 wRC+ in 71 games for L.A. last year was more than acceptable for a utility player. Given that the Dodgers have shown a preference for playing both Rojas and Santiago Espinal against primarily left-handed pitching, that paves the way for Kim to get frequent reps against right-handed pitching while Betts is on the shelf as the team’s shortstop next to Freeland at second base. Against lefties, Rojas at shortstop and Espinal at second base seems to be the likely lineup of choice, though the Dodgers could also consider giving Max Muncy a breather to get Freeland (or Kim) in the lineup against a southpaw or two. While Freeland has been protected from lefties to this point in his young MLB career, he is a switch-hitter whose development could benefit from taking extra reps on his weaker side at the big league level.