TOKYO — Mookie Betts’ return to shortstop will have to wait until the Dodgers return home from Japan.
Betts will miss both of the Dodgers’ season-opening games at the Tokyo Dome this week against the Chicago Cubs, manager Dave Roberts said Monday, as he continues to recover from a stomach virus that has kept him out of action since last weekend.
Betts is expected to be ready for the Dodgers’ domestic home opener on March 27 against the Detroit Tigers. But in the meantime, Roberts said the Dodgers are “contemplating” sending him back home to Los Angeles early, before the team departs following Wednesday’s second game against the Cubs.
“He’s still trying to find his way [physically],” Roberts said. “I think the question is, what’s best to get him ready for opening day? We’re still talking. That’s on the table.”
Betts first started feeling sick before the team left for Japan last week. He made his final Cactus League appearance on March 9, continuing to transition back to a shortstop position he is slated to play full-time this year after a three-month stint there last year. But after reporting his symptoms to the club the next day, he was held out of the team’s final two games in Arizona.
Roberts said there wasn’t much initial consideration to having Betts miss the trip to Tokyo; nor concern that his illness, which Roberts said doctors didn’t believe was contagious, would spread to others on the team.
However, over the course of his sickness, Betts lost almost 15 pounds, according to Roberts, and looked noticeably slimmer when he arrived in Tokyo. Though he finally began feeling better in recent days, he was still battling lingering effects of dehydration and fatigue.
“The thing is when you lose a lot of weight, when you’re dehydrated, that’s what opens a person up to soft-tissue injuries,” Roberts said. “We’re very mindful of that. So to take the next week, call it, to build him back up, his strength, do some baseball activities to get ready for the home opener.”
Betts didn’t play in either of the Dodgers’ exhibition games against Japanese teams this weekend. During a pregame workout on Sunday, the 32-year-old former MVP looked visibly tired while taking ground balls, resting his hands on his knees several times between drills.
Betts was scheduled to participate in an off-day workout Monday, but ended up scrapping the session.
Roberts said the added toll of Betts’ move back to shortstop contributed to the team’s decision to hold him out of Tuesday and Wednesday’s season-opening games.
The manager also acknowledged that, if the Dodgers had known Betts wouldn’t be able to play in Tokyo, they likely would have had him stay back from the trip.
