Cody Snavely
ANAHEIM— The Los Angeles Dodgers are set to begin their final spring training game this afternoon in Game Three of their short three-game exhibition series against their Freeway rival, the Los Angeles Angels.
However, the biggest storyline tonight and leading up to the Dodgers’ home opener this Thursday against the Detroit Tigers is the status of Mookie Betts, who has been battling a stomach illness for the last two weeks.
Betts, who has lost around twenty pounds since the end of Cactus League play, missed two exhibition games in Tokyo, Japan, and the two-game Opening Day series against the Chicago Cubs.
Initially, Betts was set to rejoin the Dodgers lineup at the start of their series with the Angels but was a late-game scratch in Game One and stayed in Los Angeles for Game Two.
However, as Dodgers manager Dave Roberts stated in yesterday’s pre/post-game, Betts is set to make his first appearance since early March, batting second tonight and playing shortstop.
According to Roberts, the team hopes Mookie Betts will get three at-bats tonight and play four to five innings at shortstop.
As for the off day tomorrow, Betts will play a simulated game at Dodger Stadium, and depending on how he feels physically after that, it will determine if he’s in the starting lineup on domestic Opening Day.
Lastly, spring training breakout journeyman David Bote has exercised his upward mobility clause in his non-roster invitee deal with the Dodgers.
Essentially, this allows Bote to possibly become available to twenty-nine other teams if his current roster (Dodgers) does not add him to its 40-man roster.
So, if the Dodgers don’t add Bote to the 40-man roster, he can choose to become a free agent. If Bote does get added to the 40-man roster, he does not have to be added to the team’s active 26-man roster, as he still has one minor league option remaining.
Bote, 31, was impressive this spring before being optioned to Triple-A OKC prior to the start of the Tokyo Series last week.
The former Chicago Cubs utilityman had a .400/.471/.700 slash line and a 1.171 OPS in thirty at-bats, two home runs, nine RBIs, and twenty-one total bases for the Dodgers this spring training after signing with the Dodgers over the winter.
Bote will have much to think about in the coming days as he raved about the team, their culture, and the coaching staff during his short time with the Dodgers this spring.
“Working with RVS (Robert Van Scoyoc), (Aaron) Bates, and all the hitting guys, they’re the best in the business,” Bote said.
“Seeing it from afar and now being able to come over and access those minds, how they work over here, has been awesome. They’re the best in the business for a reason. It’s just been really cool to work on some things and see the results of it.
“It definitely takes a lot of time and work. The first thing they say is you’ll get out what you put into it. They had a couple things to work and feel, and over time you check boxes if it works on flips, works on BP, works off machines, the Trajekt, live BP. You kind of scaffold it, basically. It’s been part of the process.”
The decision basically comes down to whether Bote wants to spend time in the Dodgers’ minor league system this season, waiting for a slim call-up to the Major League roster, or test free agency again to see if he can get a role elsewhere.
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