Mookie Betts' disastrous season for Dodgers is no longer flying under the radar

There's a narrative around baseball that the Los Angeles Dodgers are some sort of unstoppable juggernaut destined to steamroll the rest of the league en route to their third straight World Series title. Those who have actually been paying attention to this team know that isn't really the case.

Sure, Los Angeles is very deep and talented, but the team has its issues, and those are beginning to rear their ugly heads right now. One of the most concerning problems has been the ongoing decline of Mookie Betts at the plate.

As of Aug. 6, Betts is hitting just .233/.288/.397 this season. He has popped 13 homers, but his 86 wRC+ puts him 14% behind the league-average hitter and is easily the worst mark of his career. The Dodgers have tried to jump-start him and mitigate the issue, even dropping Betts to fifth in the lineup.

There have been fleeting moments where the once-fearsome hitter seems to reappear, with the largest bright spot being the month of June when he posted an .816 OPS. Every other full month of the season, his OPS has fluctuated from .580 on the low end to .710 on the high end. The frustrating thing is that he can't seem to figure out the root of what is going wrong.

"I have no idea. I feel like I'm hitting the ball hard. I feel like I'm having good at-bats, not swinging at bad pitches. It seems like every time I touch the bat, it goes at somebody, so I just need something. I don't know, I'm just trying to figure it out," an exasperated Betts told reporters following Los Angeles's 5-1 defeat against the Chicago Cubs on August 4.

"I feel like I'm hitting the ball hard at the same rate as I was [in June]. I don't know," he continued. "I mean, it's very hard. I've just never done this, so I don't really know how to get through it. So every day I show up, and I'm trying to restore that hope meter in order to keep myself going."

That doesn't sound ideal, and now the Dodgers need him more than ever. Will Smith is trending in the right direction, but he's still looking at a return date that's around the start of September. Meanwhile, Dalton Rushing has also landed on the IL, Kyle Tucker is still struggling, and Teoscar Hernández has been disappointing since coming back from his own injury.

Los Angeles can't afford to have half their lineup scuffling, and Betts is one of their biggest and brightest stars. He's one of the pillars the club is supposed to be able to lean on during rough times. Can he turn it around?

The Dodgers need Mookie Betts to snap out of his funk, and the data tells an interesting story

It's easy to feel like the 33-year-old is declining. He really hasn't been the same since succumbing to that mysterious illness last year in Japan during the Tokyo Series, and it is certainly cause for concern.

But let's take a look at what Betts is actually doing at the plate before we ring the alarm bells too loudly. First, he is controlling what he can control, posting a 97th percentile chase rate (19.5%), a 98th percentile whiff rate (12.3%), and a 95th percentile strikeout rate (11.8%).

Those are all incredibly strong metrics, but the batted ball data is a bit more conflicting. Betts has a solid average exit velocity of 90.6 miles per hour (73rd percentile), and he hits the ball at great angles to do damage, posting a launch angle sweet spot percentage of 40.4%.

On the flip side, his hard-hit rate of 38.6% comes in as a 37th percentile performance, and his barrel rate is a tick below average at 7.6%, ranking in the 47th percentile.

So what does this all mean? Basically, Betts isn't beating himself by chasing junk or whiffing. When he gets a hold of one, he is still doing damage, but he's not hitting balls hard with the frequency he has in the past.

There is some good news, though. Based on his quality of contact, his expected batting average is .277, and his expected slugging percentage is .433. That gives us an xwOBA of .330, which is significantly better than his .298 actual, but a far cry from his peak.

Essentially, Betts will likely break out of his funk sooner or later, but he might not reach the same heights he had in the past when he was one of the game's most dangerous hitters. Unfortunately, the Mookie Betts of old is the one that the Dodgers really need.

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