The Los Angeles Dodgers may lead the National League West, but Mookie Betts has endured a slump throughout the 2025 season. Aside from the 2020 season (when there were no All-Stars), Betts hadn’t missed an All-Star selection since 2015 heading into the 2025 campaign. That changed this season, though, as the Dodgers star was not selected to the National League All-Star team amid his struggles. In other words, Betts had been one of the most consistent superstars in the sport. So, what is the concern in 2025?
Betts recently addressed the slump, via Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic.
“I’ve never done this,” Betts said. “It’s all new. I’ve never been this bad for this long.”
It’s true. Even when Betts has struggled — and those scenarios have been rare — he has found ways to bounce back. 2017 was one of Betts’ worst seasons in the league, yet he still managed to record an .803 OPS while finishing sixth in American League MVP voting (he played with the Boston Red Sox at the time).
Through 90 games played in 2025, though, Mookie Betts is hitting just .241/.311/.377 to go along with a .688 OPS. Let’s take an in-depth look at the possible reasons behind Betts’ alarming underperformance.
Mookie Betts struggling at the plate
Bad luck has played a role, but it isn’t the only reason. Betts’ .245 BABip (batting average on balls in play) would be a career-low. His 11.1 strikeout percentage is actually lower than his career 13.5 strikeout percentage. Betts’ walk rate has declined a bit — 9.1 percent in 2025 compared to 10.7 percent for his career — but strikeouts and walks don’t tell the whole story of Betts’ slump.
You could try to turn to the fly-ball conversation, but Betts’ 33.5 fly-ball rate is better than his career average of 30 percent. His ground-ball percentage has increased in comparison to recent seasons, but it’s still sitting around his career average.
Betts is utilizing the opposite part of the field on a consistent basis, isn’t pulling the ball too much and is still hitting the ball up the middle at a respectable rate.
The usual culprits for a slump aren’t present — except for one simple thing. The harsh reality is that Mookie Betts simply is not hitting the baseball hard in 2025.
Betts hit the ball harder than ever in 2018, recording a career-high 53.3 hard-hit percentage. Before the ’25 campaign, Betts had never recorded a hard-hit rate of lower than 39.5 percent. So far in 2025, though, the Dodgers slugger is hitting the ball hard just 35.1 percent of the time.
One has to imagine that the stomach virus Betts dealt with during spring training — which caused him to lose weight — is playing a role in his struggles to hit the baseball hard. The fact that other elements of Betts’ game haven’t changed too much suggest that this isn’t a decline, rather, Betts possibly just hasn’t gained his strength completely back yet.
Don’t give up on Betts
There is reason to believe that Betts will bounce back. His BABip, as mentioned, suggests bad luck is impacting his performance. As Betts continues to build up his strength once again, he will surely begin to hit the ball hard at a consistent rate. The question is whether or not he will bounce back in 2025.
It certainly would not be surprising to see the former MVP find his footing sooner rather than later. Nothing is guaranteed, but perhaps Mookie Betts will get things going before the playoffs, which is what truly matters amid the Dodgers’ World Series-or-bust mindset.
