Mookie Betts is on pace for one of the greatest seasons we've ever seen
We're witnessing something special.
He’s one of the highest paid players in the history of the sport.
He’s been an All-Star numerous times.
He’s won Gold Glove Awards and Silver Slugger Awards.
He is a former MVP.
We all know that Mookie Betts has been one of the best players in baseball over the last six seasons. He’s helped not one, but two different teams win a World Series.
Betts, at the age of 29, just had arguably the greatest month of his big-league career. He put up numbers that only a handful of Hall of Famers have put up. Wait until you see the list.
Although Betts is on pace for the best season of his career, it feels like his greatness isn’t being talked about enough. I know that Dodgers fans are soaking up every minute of it. I’m talking about the national audience. Do they know just how good Mookie Betts has been this season?
He’s on pace for one of the greatest seasons in baseball history. No, seriously. His season has the chance to be unlike one we’ve seen in our lifetime.
So, I have to ask the question. Is it possible that Mookie Betts…. has become underrated?
Underrated. Under-appreciated. You pick. We’re witnessing a historic season so far from one of the best in the game, and it’s time we acknowledge it a little more.
Through 47 games, Betts has a fWAR of 3.3. That would put him on pace to finish with an 11.4 fWAR. Just how good would that be? Well, during his insane 2018 campaign in which he won AL MVP, Betts posted an fWAR of 10.6. He’s on pace to beat that by nearly a full run.
Obviously keeping up this current pace will be difficult, but it just shows just how good his season has the chance of being.
Let’s just say he’s able to reach that number of 11.4. That would be the 16th time in Major League history a player would have posted an fWAR that high. He would be in some pretty special company. Babe Ruth reached that number six times. Barry Bonds reached it three times. Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams each did it twice. Then you have Lou Gehrig and Rogers Hornsby. That’s the list. Those are the players.
Betts has the chance to join some pretty special company.
Remember earlier when I mentioned his incredible May? Let’s talk about that.
In 27 games in May, Betts put up these numbers: 12 HR, 27 RBI, 10 2B, 39 H, 31 R, 13 BB.
He’s the first player in over 60 years to have a month that good. In fact, he joins a group of Hall of Famers who have put up those numbers over the course of a month. He joined Hank Aaron (1961) Ted Williams (1950) Joe DiMaggio (1937) Lou Gehrig (1936) Jimmie Foxx (1932) Lou Gehrig (1930) Babe Ruth (1920).
Pretty good, I’d say.
“He’s playing MVP-type baseball, he really is,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said to reporters last week in Washington D.C. “But over the last 30 days, it’s as good as anybody on the planet. Yeah, it’s as good as I’ve seen him. He’s scoring runs at a crazy clip. He’s on base. He’s slugging at a ridiculous clip, too. And he’s playing Gold Glove defense, too. He’s making the game look a lot easier than it is.”
Let’s talk about those runs that Mookie Betts is scoring. He’s scored 50 runs this season, putting him on a 162-game pace to score 172 this season. Only one player in the live-ball era has scored more than 170 in a season, which came over 100 years ago in 1921 when Babe Ruth scored 177.
Even if his pace slows down a little, Betts very easily could score at least 150 times. His previous high is 135 and he’s got some pretty good hitters than can drive him in. If Betts is able to score 150 runs, he’d become the second player since Ted Williams in 1949 to score that many in a season. Jeff Bagwell scored 152 in 2000.
The crazy thing about this season for Betts is the fact he started off so slow. Through the first few weeks of the season, Betts wasn’t performing at all. After two weeks, Betts was hitting .178 with an OPS of .511. He had yet to hit a home run and had only two extra base hits.
On April 22, Betts crushed two home runs. Since then, he’s been arguably the best player in all of baseball. Over his last 33 games, Betts has posted a 3.3 fWAR, which is actually the same as his total for the season. If you took his pace from the last 33 games, that would be a pace for an fWAR of 16.2 over a full season, which would be the greatest of all time.
I know I’m getting ahead of myself. It’s about only 20 percent worth of a season. But he’s just been that good.
Although he started to heat up on April 22, it was May 4 in which his hot streak really began at the plate. Here’s where he ranks among all players in baseball over the last four weeks.
29 runs (1st)
12 home runs (1st)
2.6 fWAR (1st)
1.202 OPS (2nd)
230 wRC+ (2nd)
27 RBI (3rd)
37 hits (4th)
The most surprising number during his recent surge has been the home runs numbers. Betts isn’t new to hitting a lot of dingers. He’s hit at least 30 in a season twice in his career. But at this rate? Not even close.
In the month of May, Betts hit 12 home runs, the most he’s ever hit in a month. His previous high was 10, which he did back in August of 2020 with the Dodgers. Betts is currently on pace to shatter his previous high of 32 home runs, as he’s on pace to hit 49 homers.
Is that number doable? Well, let’s take a look back at the last five players to hit 49 home runs and how many games it took them to reach 15 homers, the number Betts currently has. Betts has also played 47 games this season.
Pete Alonso (2019) — 46 games
Eugenio Suarez (2019) — 66 games
Aaron Judge (2017) — 38 games
Giancarlo Stanton (2017) — 52 games
Chris Davis (2013) — 46 games
49 home runs certainly seems like a tough number to reach, but it’s definitely a possibility at his current rate.
It’s only June 1. There is a lot of season left. Injuries happen, slumps happen. It’s baseball. Still, we might be witnessing one of the greatest seasons we’ve ever seen.
Whether he reaches all of the numbers I mentioned or comes up just short, they shouldn’t matter at the end of the day. Take advantage of what we get to witness. Watch his at bats. Watch him play defense in right field. It’s special.
We’re watching one of the best players of the past decade in his prime. We’ve seen how good Mookie Betts can be.
The crazy thing is… we might not have even witnessed yet just how good he truly can be.