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Betts is probably the most inconsistent great player in the league. The key here is that even with big fluctuations in his hitting statistics due to his overall play he has always been a very productive player just at different levels.





Here is a look at Betts' wRC+ in the last three seasons and where he ranks in the majors during each year(wRC+ is a park adjusted statistic in which 100 is about league average):





2017: 107 75th

2018: 185 2nd

2019: 135 23rd





That's insane. Even in the biggest breakout seasons when players change their careers like what Ketel Marre and DJ LeMahieu did in 2019 or Christian Yelich once he went to Milwaukee they improved their wRC+ by around 50.





Yelich's jumped from 117 to 166.





Marte: 106 to 150.





LeMahieu: 87 to 136





That illustrates pretty clearly a pattern. Big breakouts usually involve a jump around 50 in wRC+ but Betts took it to a whole nother level.





The good news for the Dodgers is that the 2017 season looks like an outlier year, his BABIP was way below his career average, the same goes for his Line Drive% and his Z-Swing%. It's not a coincidence. Those three are all connected.





It's also pretty safe to say that his MVP campaign in 2018 won't be reached. Not because he isn't good enough is just that a 10.4 win season is really tough to accomplish once nevertheless multiple times.





The projections have him at around a 6 win player and that's about right. Based on his career numbers I do believe that's a little low and he'll probably too it but like we've seen in this article his hitting statistics tend to be a little unpredictable but with what he provides on the basepaths and as a defender even in his worse season he is a very productive player.





This is merely a curiosity and you shouldn't read too much into it in terms of whether or not the Dodgers should've traded for him, how good he really is. Mollie Betts is a tremendous player and an incredibly poor campaign by his standards in 2017 explained mainly by his .268 BABIP significantly below his career average of .314.





Before I leave it's important to point out that Betts struck 11.1% of the time in 2017, a career low for the 2018 AL MVP. He cut down on strikeouts but it didn't matter because he didn't hit as much and he didn't walk as much.





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I'll see you guys later