Mookie Betts Reminding Ex-Red Sox Pitcher Of 2018 MVP Season
Los Angeles Dodgers star Mookie Betts assembled one of the best all-time single seasons with the Boston Red Sox in 2018.
Betts won the American League MVP alongside a Silver Slugger Award, a Gold Glove Award, joined the 30-30 club and helped with the World Series with Boston too. Not bad, right? The former Red Sox outfielder became the first player in Major League Baseball history to win each of those three awards in the same season.
That’s pretty hard to top, even for the now-7-time Dodgers All-Star.
Yet, fellow former Red Sox-turned-Dodgers teammate Ryan Brasier is being reminded of that sellar year from Betts as Los Angeles remains on pace for a deep playoff hunt.
“I haven’t seen many guys go on runs like Mookie did in ’18, but it’s honestly the two of them (Betts and Freddie Freeman) together at the top of the lineup,” Brasier told MLB Network Radio Thursday. “… I don’t know that both of them get overshadowed because I think that they make everybody on the team — hitters-wise — battle like they do. In ’18, I think that guys behind Mookie, wanted to do what he was doing. And seeing what he was doing made everybody hungry to not give away at-bats and to grind it out.”
Betts isn’t the runaway candidate for MVP that he was in 2018, but he’s still in the midst of yet another elite season with the Dodgers.
The 30-year-old is batting .295 with 31 home runs — five shy of a new career-high — and 81 RBIs through 114 games played in 2023. That’s played huge in Los Angeles’ run at being one of the biggest power threats in baseball today. The Dodgers have launched 189 long balls, ranking second among all teams in MLB.
Brasier, who was designated from assignment by the Red Sox in May, will join Betts along with J.D. Martinez, Joe Kelly and Kiké Hernández in making a return to Fenway Park on Aug. 25 against the Red Sox.