{"id":97644,"date":"2025-03-17T00:37:23","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T04:37:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=97644"},"modified":"2025-03-17T00:37:23","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T04:37:23","slug":"dodgers-mookie-betts-out-tokyo-series-illness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/03\/17\/dodgers-mookie-betts-out-tokyo-series-illness\/","title":{"rendered":"Mookie Betts to Miss Season-Opening Tokyo Series with Illness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Los Angeles Dodgers <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/12\/09\/dodgers-mookie-betts-moving-back-shortstop\/\" target=\"_self\">shortstop<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bettsmo01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-03-17_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mookie Betts<\/a> is ill, and will not play in the season-opening series in Tokyo against the Chicago Cubs, according to Bill Plunkett of The Orange County Register. \u00a0Los Angeles <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/03\/10\/dodgers-dave-roberts-manager-extension\/\" target=\"_self\">manager<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=roberda07,roberda05,roberda06,roberda03&amp;search=Dave+Roberts&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-03-17_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dave Roberts<\/a> said they might send the perennial All-Star home early to recuperate. The Dodgers, who will play two games in Japan starting on Tuesday, are seeking to be the first back-to-back World Series Champions in 25 years.<\/p>\n<p>Betts sat out of the two exhibition games in hopes of aiding his recovery, but he became lightheaded when he took ground balls in a workout. He walked gingerly off the field a short time later.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Per Dave Roberts \u2014 Mookie Betts will not play in either game v Cubs. <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Dodgers?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Dodgers<\/a> \u201ccontemplating\u201d sending him home early<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/billplunkettocr\/status\/1901460842681618591?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 17, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Mookie Betts to Miss Tokyo Series for Dodgers<\/h2>\n<h3>On the Mend<\/h3>\n<p>Betts has lost close to 15 pounds during this illness, Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times further reports, but he has felt better in recent days. However, the Dodgers say there is a risk of a soft-tissue injury for the shortstop, and they would rather not put his recuperation in jeopardy. \u00a0They are optimistic that he will be ready for the home opener when the rest of the team returns to Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<h3>Who Will Take Mookie&#8217;s Place?<\/h3>\n<p>The Dodgers pride themselves on versatility, and it will be tested early. However, they will turn to a reliable substitute. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/rojasmi02.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-03-17_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Miguel Rojas<\/a> will fill in while the Dodgers await Betts&#8217; return. The Cubs will be featuring two left-handers in the brief series, so it seems a fitting matchup for the veteran right-hand hitter, who had a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/10\/02\/dodgers-underrated-mvp-miguel-rojas\/\" target=\"_self\">career year last season<\/a> before dealing with <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/10\/17\/dodgers-miguel-rojas-dealing-multiple-injuries\/\" target=\"_self\">multiple injuries.<\/a>  These injuries were surgically repaired this winter, and Rojas will serve as the backup infielder in 2025.<\/p>\n<h3>Irreplaceable<\/h3>\n<p>The Dodgers hope that Mookie&#8217;s absence will be as brief as possible. It&#8217;s hard to replace an eight-time All-Star. And his three World Series rings speak for themselves.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts is ill, and will not play in the season-opening series in Tokyo against the Chicago Cubs, according to Bill Plunkett of The Orange County Register. \u00a0Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts said they might send the perennial All-Star home early to recuperate. The Dodgers, who will play two games in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5226,"featured_media":97660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33,1071,35],"tags":[257,2816,250],"class_list":["post-97644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dodgers","category-mlb","category-news","tag-dave-roberts","tag-miguel-rojas","tag-mookie-betts"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97644"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97661,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97644\/revisions\/97661"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}